Annotation:Seventy Eighth's Farewell to Begaum
X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x
SEVENTY EIGHTH’S FAREWELL TO BEGAUM. Scottish, Pipe March (2/4 time). A four-part pipe march composed in 1848, commemorating the departure of the Ross-shire Buffs (as was known the 2nd Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders) from the little station in south-west India where the regiment had been sent to recuperate from a severe epidemic. They lost five hundred and thirty-five officers and soldiers and two hundred wives and children in a cholera epidemic while stationed at Sukkur in the province of Sind. Some unidentified piper composed this tune when the regiment left Begaum for Bombay (David Murray, Music of the Scottish Regiments, Edinburgh, 1994, p. 119). See also note for “annotation:Barren Rocks of Aden” for another fine march to come out of the 78th's station overseas at the time.