The Oban Times, March 22, 1924
Rosegarth, Dunoon, 15th March, 1924
Sir,–As Secretary of Cowal Gathering, I crave space in your columns to put on record my appreciation of the late Dr. Bannatyne. The service he rendered in the cause of Piping, his earnest zeal, his willingness to help in any experiment [?] that had for its object the advancement of “Piob Mhor” are qualities that will always command my respect and admiration.
His connection with Cowal Gathering extends back twenty-five years, and I do not think he was absent once during that period, certainly not since 1906, when the Argyll Shield Band Contest was inaugurated. During all these years he has acted as a judge of Band Contests or Solo Piping, giving decisions without fear or favour, with credit to himself and, as far as possible, satisfaction to competitors.
An annual subscriber to Cowal Gathering and the donor of the trophy for band contests, the Bannatyne Shield, he was certainly one of us, and we hope by the latter to keep his memory green. Probably his last proposed public act, in the cause he loved, was the examination of the boy pupils of the Cowal School of Bagpipes. This was to take place on Wednesday night before he died.– I am, etc.,
H. S. Strafford
