A song from the launch of my latest CD, "Trout and Toolbox" held at the Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide in late 2016.
Billy won the silver cup
At the show in 1914
The youngest piper e'er to win
He'd just reached 16 years
But stories of the fighting men
Marching proud behind the piper
Filled him with a glorious greed
To make his Father proud
None would march before him
Ever to the fore
With his mates behind him
He would go to war
When she read his parting note
His Mother called out to his Father
"William go put on your coat
Billy's run away"
They got on the Glasgow train
Took the ride into the city
Marched across the barrack square
Enquiring for their child
"There was nothing they could do" they said
"For you've missed him by a day
There was nothing they could" they said
"The boy's away"
None would march before him
Ever to the fore
With his mates behind him
He would go to war
When the order came to go
With his pipes he climbed the ladder
And striking up the battle march
He entered No Man's Land
Rifled cracked and bullet sped
Through tartan bag and battle tunic
Where once had marched a fighting man
Lay the body of a child
But none marched before him
Ever to the fore
With his mates behind him
Billy went to war
When he saw the body fall
The sniper called out to his comrades
Hold your fire I tell you all
There are children on the field
Stretcher came to bear him off
Silence fell across the trenches
Their rifle down Their helmets doffed
They watched him born away
"There was nothing they could do" they said
"For he's just the first today
There was nothing they could" they said
"The boy's away"
But none marched before him
Ever to the fore
With his mates behind him
Billy went to war
