A MUSSELBURGH bugler and piper were determined to carry out their duties to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day despite the Covid-19 lockdown.

Alastair Knowles BEM played the ‘Last Post’ on the bugle from the front door of his Stoneyhill home and pipe major Stewart Braby performed ‘Battle’s O’er’ at the Mall near his house in Inveresk Road last Friday.

Mr Knowles said he was asked by Iain Clark, from Musselburgh, a Depute Lieutenant of East Lothian, to mark the end of the two -minute silence at 11am that day by ringing the bell at Northesk Church in Musselburgh, which he duly did.

Mr Knowles also heard from Bruno Peek, VE Day 75 Pageant Master, who was keen to keep as much of the national programme going as possible amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

The events were arranged to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day – the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of the Nazis’ unconditional surrender of their armed forces, on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Buglers and trumpeters were still urged to sound the ‘Last Post’, as planned, at 2.55pm, and pipers to play ‘Battle’s O’er’ at 3pm.

Mr Knowles followed his uncle into the Boys’ Brigade in the mid-1950s.

Since then he has become a key part of the group, becoming a bugler and leading drummer in the Penicuik and Musselburgh Boys’ Brigade Pipe Band.

He was Town Champion at the 1991 Riding of the Marches in Musselburgh, before being appointed chairman of the 2016 event.

He is also a former president of the Old Musselburgh Club.

He received the BEM for services to the community in Musselburgh.

Mr Braby, pipe major with the Penicuik & Musselburgh Boys’ Brigade Pipe Band, is also pipe major of the massed bands at the Boys’ Brigade Beating Retreat at Edinburgh Castle.

Mr Knowles said: “Later in the evening my wife Lily and I, as our daily exercise outing, took a walk to Northesk, where the third member of the church,

Lorraine McBrearty, added her contribution with the singing of ‘We’ll Meet Again’ only yards from her home on Bridge Street at 9pm.

He added: “It was a busy but fulfilling day.”