Jack's Last Set
Over the years (he actually worked as a bagpipe maker for a
total of 52 years!!!!) Jack made many sets of bagpipes but none more
special than the set he made for his grandson, Jeff Pettigrew.
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| Jeff, Jack,
Jacquie and daughter Brittney watching solos at
Georgetown |
At the age of 10, Jeff was a budding piper in
1998, having started out with the Braemar Pipe Band under the tuition of
Jim Beattie with his Dunbar P3 bagpipes. By the year 2000, it became quite
apparent that Jeff had the talent and commitment to be a succesful piper
and began taking lessons from Jim Caddis (former P/M Niagara Regional
Police PB).
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| Jeff and his
first teacher, Jim Beattie waiting for the St. Catharines Grape
& Wine Parade to begin |
Although Jack was long "semi-retired", he
insisted on doing all the finishing work on Jeff's new
pipes. Perhaps he somehow knew that this would be the last set
of pipes he would have a direct hand in making. Certainly they
would be his special gift to his grandson. Jack spent many days
making the bagpipe ready to receive hand-turned imitation ivory projecting
mounts and zoomorphic silver by The Bagpipe Silver
Company. They were completed only days before Christmas and
were presented to Jeff on Christmas morning. Jack was beaming
with pride for both this bagpipe and his grandson.
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| Jeff in his
first solo competition with his new pipes - Georgetown,
2001 |
Jeff played within the Braemar organization for
many years until its demise in 2006, including being P/M of their G5 band,
The Jack Dunbar Memorial Pipe Band and also playing in their G2 band.
During his time with Braemar he was taught by the late Lindsay Kirkwood
and then The Captain, Ken Eller. He is now a piper with the
Peel Regional Police Pipe Band, having made the jump to Grade 1 in 2006,
at the age of 18.
Even though Jack is no longer with us, we believe
every time Jeff fires up his pipes, he is listening and making sure
everything is still "just right" with them. Jeff becoming a succesfull
piper would have meant more to Jack than anything else in the world,
including the legacy of this business he started.
As a side note, Jack's granddaughter Brittney
Pettigrew also played in The Jack Dunbar Memorial Pipe band as a tenor
drummer, wearing Jack's Dunbar tartan kilt.
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| Brittney
wearing Jack's Dunbar tartan kilt |
Update: May, 2010
Jeff is now taking a hiatus from
competition pipng as he is currently over in Afghanistan as a member of
the Canadian military. Jeff, we are very proud of you, love you very much
& miss you greatly!!!!! Please stay safe.
Obviously, Jeff did not want to take his
Blackwood pipes over to that type of extreme climate so we have properly
stored them until he gets back. He has taken a set of P3s over with him so
if you happen to be at the KAF & hear a piper, take a walk over &
it may be Jeff playing. If so, please say hi for us!!!!

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