As per usual, the Gordon Highlanders have it right...the Drums & Pipes, not the Pipes & Drums.  Drummers have been part of the military's daily life for centuries, soldiers listening to beatings for regular formations, company calls, and the like.  Though pipers have been in Scotland for centuries as well, they are relative late-comers as officially sanctioned soldiers.  For the Gordons, the first official notice taken of pipers comes in an order dated 27 October, 1796, when pipers were required to attend all fatigue parties (that is, they were required to turn out for manual work details...we'll leave the reader to draw your own conclusions about pipers' work ethic). The Gordons, then, properly list the instruments in order of seniority, the Drums & Pipes.  Far from being regimental ornaments, the Regimental history is full of examples of the 'Ds & Ps' pivotal role in war (much of the following is taken from the Gordon Highlander's Music Collection, Volume One):

• In the Pass of Maya (1813), a body of 2,600 British soldiers held off 11,000 of Napoleon's best infantry for nine hours. "So dreadful was the slaughter, especially of the 92nd, that it is said the advancing enemy were actually stopped by the heaped mass of dead and dying." As the battle ground towards its close, the 92nd's Pipe Major, thinking some music would appeal to the Regiment, stuck up a tune. Instantly, the tired soldiers looked to the general for orders to charge forward and sweep the French from the area. Instead, the piper was told to stop playing as the regiment was in no condition to advance. As the general assembled the forces for a final charge, the Pipe Major struck up again, this time playing the Regimental Charge. This time there was no stopping him or the 92nd; though badly mauled and tired, they sprang forward and drove the French from the field.

• In 1880, the 92nd took part in the campaign into Afghanistan. In just 23 days, the regiment marched from Kabul to Kandahar, the Drums & Pipes playing most of the way. On arriving, a small area in front of Kandahar had to be cleared. Lt. Menzies found himself in a courtyard. At one end was an open door, and through that room was a locked door. Hearing voices on the other side of the locked door, Lt Menzies shot the lock open. Immediately a shot came from inside the room, wounding Lt. Menzies. Drummer Roddick, the closest soldier to Menzies, drew his claymore and stood over the officer while a group of Afghans rushed through the door. Dmr Roddick fought off the Afghans, telling Lt Menzies that he would be safe as long as the claymore blade held out. A second Gordon arrived shortly, and Lt Menzies was carried off to safety.

Drum Sergeant Drinkwater, probably taken just before the 1881 amalgamation. He would have known Dmr Roddick well.

• After the devastation of The Great War, pipers were no longer permitted to lead troops into battle; the Regiment had lost 16 of 18 pipers in just the first two weeks in France doing precisely that. In subsequent years, then, the Drums & Pipes confirmed their place as valuable operational soldiers as well as central to military morale. The Ds & Ps performed the role of a machine gun squad in addition to their normal duties. Piper Harry Lunan (see photo to the left), who piped the Gordons through the Great War, and survived to be the oldest surviving piper from that war.

After World War II, the regiment was reduced down to a single battalion, but the Ds & Ps remained a vital part of its daily duties.  This photo, taken in 1958 at Dover, has a number of well-known personalities:

• Second from the left, seated, is Cpl Albert 'Cherry' Anderson, nephew of the legendary P/M. during World War II, who would later become P/M. to the 1st Battalion.
• Third from the left, seated, is D/M. Les Burlton, MBE, who fought with 1st/Gordon and was captured at St Valery, fighting to give others the chance to escape at Dunkirk.
• Third from the right, seated, is P/M. Callum Campbell, a fine player originally from the Seaforth Highlanders.
• Second from the right, seated, is Gordon Spiers, who would emigrate to the United States and form several pipe bands.
• On both ends of the standing row are Jim and Bill McConnachie (aka: the bookends); the only way to tell them apart was that Jim was left handed!
• Third from the left, standing, is John Spoore, who would go on to become Pipe Major, London Scottish, and piper to the Queen Mother.
• Third from the right, standing, is Joe Wilson, later P/M. for the 1st Bn. He played with the Glasgow Police Pipe Band and is a now a senior judge and a senior at The College of Piping, Glasgow.