I am delighted to advise you all that on Sunday 16th August 2026 at 1pm we will be holding an informal gathering at the Cenotaph at Victoria Park, Whiteinch.

All Friends, Families, Ex Members of Gordon Park / Jordanvale and the 214BB are welcome to come along for a “SEAT & A MEET”.

This is a chance to catch up with auld faces, for a chat and to see the legacy the 214 BB Ex Members are providing to the park, the place we all have so many memories of.

At the Centenary Civic Reception on the 4th October 2024 we launched our Centenary Fund.

The purpose of the fund was to enable us to provide a memorial 214BB Centenary bench to be placed in Victoria Park at the Cenotaph.

With everyone’s support we have managed to raise enough money to provide THREE benches.

This couldn’t have happened without the kind donations from all the Ex Members and their families.

A special mention goes to the families of Joe Noble, Iain Glass and Ian McLellan, whose funeral and family donations greatly added to the fund, along with notable donations from Tom Connolly, Alan Davidson, Colin McCallum and Colin McCartney.

Further fund raising was achieved by the sale of 2 full sets of 214 bagpipes, a set of small learning pipes that had been made by Alex Ibell that we still had. These had been gathered together by the late Hector Russell.

The sale of the pipes would not have been possible without the great help of Kenny MacLeod of McCallum’s Bagpipes in Kilmarnock.

They kindly manufactured missing or broken parts and refurbished the pipes to their best possible state, including new pipe carrier bag, new bag, chanter, chords, cover and all reeds at no cost to us, Thank you McCallum’s. (I will provide a more detailed “Article” on the pipes at a later date with photographs).

I look forward to meeting you all on the day, come along if you can with your Family,….. Wife, Husband, Mother, Father, Son(s), Daughter(s), (Great) Grandchild(ren) or bring the dog for a chance to remember the 214BB and what it did for the Whiteinch area.

See you all on Sunday 16th August 2026 at 1pm

I have just returned from holiday and I’m sorry to announce that Dougie Law’s wife Margaret passed away on Tuesday after a short illness at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow.

Margarets funeral is to be held on Tuesday 26th May at 9.30am. Clydebank Crematorium (Dalnottar)

Our thoughts are with the family at this sad time.

Once again we had a successful 75th Annual Reunion Dinner at Victoria Park Bowling Club.

We were able to update the members present regarding the Centenary fund and all the goings on from where the many great donations came from.

You will get a full update when I get a chance to compose the various posts I need to do. especially:-

Centenary Fund ….

The sale of the bagpipes we had.

Victoria Park Benches

The Royal Garden Party

BB Ties

and anything else I no doubt haven’t had time to cover over the last while.

Regards

Alan

Sorry to inform you all that John MacDougall (81) passed away peacefully at home on the 18th March 2026.

John who was a former Head Teacher at Braidfield High School, was married to Georgina for 44 years.

John hadn’t been along to the reunion lately but was always in touch by email.

John’s funeral will be held on Wednesday 8th April 10.30am at Clydebank Crematorium, North Dalnottar, Clydebank G81 4SL

We send out our condolences to all of John’s family at these sad times.

As I’m about to head to Ian’s funeral at Glasgow Cathedral, I’m sure some of our members in faraway lands send their apologies.

Glasgow Cathedral has a streaming service that is held on YouTube.

Please use this link if you would like to see the live recorded service.

Glasgow Cathedral

Ian’s family have advised that the funeral will be held on

Friday 19th December 2025
13.30 at Glasgow Cathedral

15.30 at Dalnotter Crematorium, Clydebank.

Thereafter onto Windyhill Golf Club, Bearsden.

I’m sure a large 214 turnout (in their ties) would be appreciated by the family, amongst what I expect to be a greatly attended funeral.

I’m sorry to have to announce the passing of Ian McLellan BEM (88) this morning Wednesday 3rd December 2025, at his home in Bearsden.

Ian joined the company in 1948 after receiving 2 years chanter tuition at the hand of Alex Ibell.

He always promoted the 214 in its strongest light, as it had provided him with so much.

Having learned at the 214 this laid the foundations of his life to come.

A regular attender at the Annual Reunions Ian always had some great stories to tell and enjoyed meeting up with all the Ex Members young and old.

Ian was not only a 214 legend but a worldwide one and his life touched so many throughout the piping world, both as a piper and a person.

I have written more about Ian, which I will place on the website in the near future.

Funeral arrangements once clarified by Ian’s family, will be posted as soon as we know them.

Meanwhile I am sure all Ex Members join me in sending our condolences to the whole of Ian’s family at this sad time.

As most will know we launched a new tie at last year’s Centenary Civic reception.

This is available to buy for members who have missed out on getting one.

If any Ex Member would like to receive a tie(s) can you please contact the Secretary (Email, Text, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Carrier pigeon, whatever suits you best.)

We can arrange to get your tie sent out and let you know the cost including postage and where to pay this.

The association has had to purchase these ties and we are looking to recoup our outlay, ties are charged at cost price.

A couple of international members have already indicated they would like to receive a tie.

We would like to send all orders out along with this year’s Christmas card.

The Secretary looks forward to hearing from those who are looking to purchase ‘their association tie’.