We are so happy that The Edinburgh Academy Pipes and Drums are going to join us for their third trip up 6th Avenue next year for the NYC Tartan D
ay Parade!
The Edinburgh Academy was opened as a school in 1824 to promote classical learning and teach Greek to compete with schools in England, it had as one of its first members of the Board of Director’s Sir Walter Scott. The Pipes and Drums was formed in 1910 as part of the Officer Training Corps which was founded in Great Britain in 1906 and started at the school in 1908, it is now called the Combined Cadet Force at the school. The school has had nine Victoria Crosses awarded to former pupils, the most from any one school in Scotland. It is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system and is awarded for valour “in the presence of the enemy”
The school is also famous for its rugby and it has the oldest continuous rugby match in the world against another school in the Edinburgh and they have been playing without a break since 1858. It has had seven rugby internationalists attend the school. Some other famous former pupils who have attended the school are novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell and Coldplay guitarist Guy Berryman. Also in 2016 former pupil John Michael Kosterlitz was a Nobel Prize winner in Physics.
Pipe Major Michael Gray has this to say about their forthcoming trip ‘The Pipes and Drums play at many school events throughout the year and have taken part in the Tartan Day parade twice before in 2007 and 2016. The band enjoyed the experiences before – playing up Sixth Avenue and being live on television were highlights of the trip last time. We are all looking forward to coming back in 2020 and visiting your great city again!
