A Rare First War Gordon Highlanders Regimental Band Touring Medal

Silver, unmarked, illustrating a beaver in the centre of a Scottish garter, backed by a veined maple leaf, inside an open-ended wreath of maple leaves with a bow-tied ribbon at its base, surmounted by a beaver standing upon a bar inscribed "CANADA", 34 mm x 41.5 mm, the medal suspended from two bars, the one immediately above the medal inscribed "BELLEVILLE", the other bar inscribed "KILTIES BAND" with a pinback, the medal and bars linked by chains, near extremely fine.

Footnote: The Kilties Touring Band (1902-1933), also known as the Regimental Band of the Gordon Highlanders, was formed in Toronto, by members of the 48th Highlanders Band, to keep some touring commitments of that group, the Kilties Band of Belleville, Ontario, was one of Canada's most popular international touring bands of its day. When Thomas P.J. Power, a hotel owner in the city, first conceived the idea of forming a local band in 1900, he probably never expected the group's meteoric rise to world fame to happen and that, too, within just the next few years. Power and William F. Robinson were its first bandmasters, and its membership at times included cornetist, Mr. Voss, and pipe sergeant, David Ferguson (who also recorded bagpipe solos for Berliner). On Sept. 9, 1904, Power and members of his band, the Belleville Kilties, found themselves at the centre of attention and adulation from local residents celebrating the imminent departure of the band on the first of its sixteen tours across the world that took place between 1904 and 1930. Work was shut down for the day. Area residents flocked to the city's downtown area to watch the band pass by in a parade organized by the city's officials, to formally mark its departure for the tour. The world tour of the Belleville Kilties, later widely known as the "Canada's Greatest Concert Band," would take its members nearly half a million miles across twenty countries, spending 110 days crossing oceans, performing in the largest coliseums, music halls and theatres. Wherever they went, large and enthusiastic audiences greeted them. The band's popularity soared, branded by the press and the public as one of the world's greatest concert organizations. In his book City of Belleville History, author W.C. Mikel described the Belleville Kilties, as follows: "The Band was composed of 40 members, who wore the striking costume of the Kilties, and which members included a trained choir of 16 voices and the late Albert Johnston's Clan Johnstone dancing and pipe specialists. The Band when marching had at its head Donald MacCormack, Drum Major, standing over seven feet tall." In the first few months of their tour, the Kilties played before King Edward VII. This reputation earned them many more opportunities to perform in front of other royalties of the world as the tour progressed. In their book Famous Bands of the British Empire, authors Alfred Zealley and J. Ord Hume noted: "The Kilties have played at many important engagements in different parts of the world, among them was that at Crystal Palace, London, when the attendance was 170,000 paid admissions on the day; Willow Grove Park, Philadelphia, when the attendance reached 150,000 one day; Madison Square, New York, the receipts for one day reached $7,000; while at the Coliseum in Chicago the receipts were over $4,000 for one day. In Sydney, Australia, the Town Hall that seats over 6,000 people was sold out solid for two weeks at high prices." According to them, the band was also the only one to have had the honour to be invited to play all its concerts in the "Million Dollar Festival Hall" during the World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, before a paying audience. All other bands representing other countries of the world played free of charge in the open. "The Kilties tour around the world was the most remarkable tour ever accomplished by any musical organization in the world," they concluded, also playing at parks and touring on the vaudeville circuit. During the touring years, the Kilties visited France, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, New Zealand, Italy, Egypt, India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Sicily, Spain, Burma, Tasmania, Fiji, Arabia, Hawaii and Mexico. Some tours took as long as two years before the group returned to Belleville. They played to great critical acclaim at the Panama-California Exposition in 1915. Some of the men who headed the band in the years of its active career included William T. Robinson, who, for his musical achievement with the band, received a diamond-studded ivory baton from King Edward VII. Next came William Peel, followed by Albert Cook, who held office with the Kilties for seven years, the longest among all its conductors. Power, the man who owned the Kilties was considered "one of the ablest business managers in the amusement business on the American continent," noted Zealley and Hume. Their recordings include "Selections from Robert Bruce" and the popular march, "Soldiers of the Queen". Their distinctive record labels were emblazoned with a colourful plaid with black lettering.