Mrs H.L MacDonald of Dunach or Mrs McDonald of Dunach. This tune is written by the eminent piper William Lawrie of Ballachulish, Argyll. (1881-1916)
He became Pipe Major of the 8th Argyllshire battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. It was very obvious he had a gift for playing and composing tunes. He served in France during WW1, and in 1916, while still in the trenches, he became ill from an infection contracted through living in poor conditions. Tragically he died in hospital in Oxford, aged only thirty-five, leaving behind his wife Una and three children. Lawrie is perhaps most well known for a tune he wrote shortly after one of the bloodiest battles of the first world war, ‘The Battle of the Somme’. Thought to be one of the greatest melodies of the first world war. There are said to be around twenty-five of his tunes that remain. Such as “The Pap of Glencoe”, “Inverary Castle” and “Captain Carswell”
Lawrie’s Bagpipes are on display in Stirling castle in the regimental museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, along with his Gold Medals he won at Oban and Inverness for competition bagpiping.
William Lawrie was a well-loved man who contributed to the wealth of Scottish piping composition, sadly taken away before his time. His funeral was well attended, and a century later, there were commemorations at the centenary of his death in 2006.

A contemporary account of Willie Lawrie’s death

William Lawrie