Bill Millin

Did you hear about Bill Millin dying? 88 years old, he was the Scot who marched up and down his particular stretch of beach at Normandy (or points thereabout) playing "Highland Laddie" and "Road to the Isles." Neither of which ring a bell, but I'm just reporting what The Times had to say.

More specifically, two excerpts made me smile. First this:

He said he found out later, after meeting Germans who had manned guns above the beach, that they didn’t shoot him “because they thought I was crazy.”

Then this:

In later years Mr. Millin told the BBC he did not regard what he had done as heroic. When Lord Lovat insisted that he play, he said, “I just said ‘O.K.,’ and got on with it.” He added: “I didn’t notice I was being shot at. When you’re young, you do things you wouldn’t dream of doing when you’re older.”

This is Mr. Millin further inland, entertaining the troops.



Which brings us, of course, to this, which is not actually the Scottish National Anthem, although everybody thinks it is. Apparently they don't have one. Regardless:

FLOWER OF SCOTLAND

O Flower of Scotland,
When will we see your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen.
And stood against him,
Proud Edward's army,
And sent him homeward
Tae think again.

The hills are bare now,
And autumn leaves lie thick and still
O'er land that is lost now,
Which those so dearly held
That stood against him,
Proud Edward's army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again.

Those days are past now
And in the past they must remain
But we can still rise now
And be the nation again!
That stood against him
Proud Edward's army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again.

O Flower of Scotland,
When will we see your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen.
And stood against him,
Proud Edward's army,
And sent him homeward
Tae think again.

Note to Clan Shelby: When do we eat?