Piper pays tribute to fallen hero

He was Alexander Robertson, a Captain in the 6th Gordon Highlanders, part of the 51st Highland Regiment, and he was killed in action on August 4 1916.

Tricia said: "I laid a small cross at his grave which is at Serre Road No 2 Cemetery and played Flowers of the Forest, Finlandia, Battle of the Somme and 51st Highland Regiment.

"Because he was actually killed at Bois des Fourcaux, I also played the same tunes there, which is just next to Longueval Cemetery, where there is a Scottish Memorial to the Highlanders and a cairn consisting of 192 Scottish flintstones."

Tricia, of Marlpits Lane, Ninfield, went out to the Flanders countryside with her husband Robert, and they were joined by her brother Alistair Robertson and his wife Ann.

Her family were in tears but Tricia herself concentrated on playing as best she could.

"I couldn't afford to think where I was, what I was doing, and why I was doing it," she said.

"I would have just blown it.

"The purpose of the visit was to play pipes at my grandfather's grave, and this was achieved. Secondary to that was that I had the opportunity, again, to play at the Menin Gate, but this time as a soloist.

"We visited many, many more cemeteries in the area - they just litter the countryside - including such places as Thiepval, Beaumont-Hanel and the Piper's Memorial in the village of Longueval (which was erected in 2002 to honour all of the pipers who were killed in the war).

"We went to the Somme 1916 Museum in Albert, which depicts life in the trenches and also to the In Flanders Fields Museum in the Cloth Hall at Ypres.

"On Tuesday evening I played at the Menin Gate. I marched on behind three buglers of the Ypres Fire Brigade and after the Minute's Silence played Flowers of the Forest. While the wreaths were being laid I then played the lament from Finlandia and finally marched the buglers off to what can best be described as a photo-shoot. It was over ten minutes before I actually managed to get away!

"The wreaths were being laid by representatives of the 2nd Australian Division who, on the same day as Grandad died, lost more men than on any other battlefield throughout the war."