Episode 37: Hector The Hero
Sunday, 23rd September 2007, 5.05pm, Radio Scotland
Originally a crofter’s son from the Black Isle, Major General Sir Hector MacDonald of the Gordon Highlanders is now perhaps best known as the kilted soldier on the recently-altered Camp Coffee label. But at the time of his suicide in a Paris hotel room in 1903, awaiting trial for homosexuality, he was a national hero. John Purser tells his story, with some of the music he inspired.
Episode Playlist
- J. Scott Skinner - Hector the Hero
Shona Mooney, fiddle
BBC recording - Trad - List, Bonny Laddie
John Strachan
LP: A Soldier’s Life for Me (Folk Songs of Britain Vol.8)
Topic 12T 196 - Trad - March off the Colours: a) 92 Quickstep b) Haughs of Cromdale
Regimental band of the Gordon Highlanders
CD Cock o’ the North
Bandleader BNA 5077 - J. Wallace: Mess Pipers [Heights of Dargai]
Regimental band of the Gordon Highlanders
CD Cock o’ the North
Bandleader BNA 5077 - J. Paterson - Majuba Hill
John MacDonald, accordion
CD The Singing Molecatcher of Morayshire
Greentrax CDTRAX 9053 - Trad arr. A. Kirk - Cock o’ the North
Regimental band of the Gordon Highlanders
CD Cock o’ the North
Bandleader BNA 5077 - Trad - Flowers of the Forest
Iain Macinnes, pipes
BBC recording - J.B. McEwen - Sonata in E minor
Geoffrey Tozer, piano
Chandos CHAN 9933 - J. Scott Skinner - Hector the Hero
Shona Mooney, fiddle
BBC recording - Trad - Lights Out (Donald Blue)
Drums and Pipes of the regimental band of the Gordon Highlanders
CD Cock o’ the North
Bandleader BNA 5077
