The St Andrew's College Pipe Band has played the College through parades, remembrance and celebration since the 1930s. In August 2027 it takes that tradition to Glasgow.
Since the 1930s
The band
The band was founded in the 1930s (between 1934 and 1938), when Colonel Murray, a master at the College, turned the school's cadet corps into a kilted corps. It is believed to be the oldest school pipe band in South Africa.
For much of its first 25 years, pupils taught one another. Patrick Terry taught himself to play from a book and then taught others, and Old Andrean pipers who stayed in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) kept the teaching going. Chris Terry returned to teach in 1976; by 2014 he had made more than 250 sets of bagpipes, and every piper on the band's tour to Scotland that year played one of them.
Girls from DSG, the College's sister school, have played in the band since the mid-1990s, and in 2019 a DSG pupil became the band's first Pipe Major from DSG.
The band leads the cadet corps on parade and plays at the Review and Retreat Parades, on Remembrance Day and at the Memorial Service at the Clock Tower during Old Andrean Tide. Two pipers lead each year's matrics out of Centenary Hall after their last assembly.
In August 2014 the band travelled to Glasgow to play at the World Pipe Band Championships.
This year
2026: a champion year
2026 · Grade 4
South African Grade 4 Champions
South African Pipe Band Championships, St Benedict's College, Bedfordview, 25 July 2026: first of eight bands in Grade 4, an open grade, and second in Novice Juvenile the same day.
2026 · Novice Juvenile
Novice Juvenile Champion of Champions
First in Novice Juvenile over the season's three contests, and second in Grade 4.
Results
- South Coast Highland Gathering AprilNovice Juvenile winners for the second year running, with the drum corps' first-ever first place in drumming.
- Pretoria Boys' Gathering JulyFirst in Novice Juvenile; second in Grade 4, and first in drumming.
- SA Drumming ChampionshipsTwo College drummers became the College's first South African champions at these championships, and the band's drumming tutor kept his adult South African title.
The goal
Scotland, August 2027
The World Pipe Band Championships have been held on Glasgow Green every year since 1947. In 2027 they fall on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 August.
For a school band, the Worlds are the stage that matters most:
- our pipers and drummers play, and are judged, beside the best bands in the world;
- they hear the top bands and adjudicators at first hand, and bring that back to Makhanda;
- a goal like Glasgow keeps players practising through the year and brings new ones into the band;
- they carry the College's name, and South Africa's, onto the world's biggest piping stage.
It can be done from Southern Africa: in 2025 St John's College, Zimbabwe, won Novice Juvenile B at the Worlds, ahead of 29 other bands. In July 2026 St Andrew's finished ahead of St John's in Grade 4 at the South African Championships.
All funds raised, from every scarf, bag and gift, go towards sponsoring the tour.