Major Bruce Hitchings MBE BEM was born in Huntersville, New Zealand and started playing the pipes at the age of eleven. By the time he was sixteen he was playing with the New Zealand Champions - The City of Wellington Pipe Band.

With the Band, he visited Scotland in 1975 and the following year came back to compete around the Games circuit for what he thought would be a couple of years.

Instead of returning home Bruce joined the Black Watch Territorial Army as a Piper in 1977and in 1978 he joined the regular army, enlisting into the Queens Own Highlanders, now The Highlanders. The following year he won the Silver Medal at the Argyllshire Gathering.

In 1986 he became the Battalion Pipe Major, a position he held for six years. The last eight years of his military career was spent in the post of WO1 Pipe Major, the Senior Pipe Major, British Army and Chief Instructor at her Army School of Piping, The Castle, Edinburgh.

Since completing his regular service Bruce has been commissioned into the Territorial Army with responsibility for TA and Cadet piping. He also remains in demand as a piper through teaching, judging competitions and giving recitals in places as far afield as China, New Zealand and the USA.