There is one person in the staff of Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II, who very often follow her even more than Prince Philip. This person is Piper to the Sovereign who is obliged to wake up the members of the royal family in the morning with the sound of his bagpipes. This tradition dates back to 1843 and only 15 people performed this prestigious duty. It is interesting that the royal bagpiper is the follower of Queen Elizabeth II on all her journeys, except while staying at Sandringham House because the problem is the lack of space for this important person in the Queen’s crew. So, besides of being a royal, members of the British royal family also have a special way of morning waking unlike their admirers. So, what exactly does this traditional ritual look like?
Source: Hello Magazine
The duty of the royal bagpiper is to be under the window of the Her Royal Highness’s room every day at exactly 9 o’clock in the morning and blow into his bagpipes for 15 minutes. In this way, apart from waking up the members of the royal family, bagpiper awakens “people around the estate”, according to the words of one source close to the royals.
Gordon Webster, who was in this position in the 1990’s, said one trivia. One interesting fact is that the queen does not like to repeat the melodies played by her bagpiper, so Gordon Webster played and remembered over 700 different tunes during his performances over the years. His, but also the duty of his successors with this title, besides playing, is to follow the Queen Elizabeth II to the audience. Also, Piper to the Sovereign is the leader of military bagpipers who are responsible for playing at important national events. This title was introduced during the reign of Queen Victoria modeled on Marquis of Breadalbane, which had a personal bagpiper. In one of her letters to her mother, she wrote:
“We’ve heard nothing but bagpipes since we were in the beautiful Highlands and I’ve become so fond of it that I mean to have a piper.”
Source: Hello Magazine
The last person to have the title of Piper to the Sovereign was Pipe Major Scott Methven of the 5 Scots Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. During the last year, he announced that he would withdraw from this duty for personal reasons. Since then, the Queen has not yet named a new person to replace the previous royal bagpiper. Last time, this happened during the Second World War. Since this is a problem, we believe that the Queen will soon get a new bagpiper.
Source: rd.com
