strathspey@strathspey.org:40301

George Meikle

Reel of the 51st

Jan. 14, 2005, 11:42 a.m. (Message 40301, in reply to message 40295)

Jay,

I though the following information might be of use to you in your quest for
details about "The Reel of the 51st Division". 

I recently received a copy of a newly released CD from a very good Canadian
friend of mine, Fred Moyes. Fred came over and stayed with me when he
recorded the CD at David Cunningham's studio on 13th July 2004. After making
the recording, Fred left us to go and play at Summer School in St Andrews.

On track 9 of the new CD, Fred has recorded "Reel of the 51st Division
(Prison Camp Version)" as a 5x32 Reel. His sleeve notes about the dance are
as follows and may help you with some background information:-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"Reel of the 51st Division"
In June of 1940, the remnants of the 51st Division of the British
Expeditionary Force surrendered to the Germans at St Valery-en-Ceux on the
coast of Normandy, France. The 51st was a Highland Division comprising
officers and men of the Black Watch, Camerons, Seaforths, Gordons and
Argylls. There was also a unit of The Royal Army Service Corps, composed
mainly of men from Perth. One group of officers ended up at a
prisoner-of-war camp in Laufen, Bavaria where they started a dancing class,
dancing, first to clapping and "tempo" calling, whistling of tunes, then
chanters obtained through the Red Cross, and finally an accordion.
Remembering dances was difficult, so they improvised and even made up a few
completely new dances. They danced, not in ghillies and Highland finery, but
in army battledress and army boots, the only clothing and footwear they
possessed.


One of these new dances, a creation of Lieutenant Jimmy Atkinson of the
Argyll Highlanders and Lieutenant Peter Oliver of the 4th Seaforth
Highlanders, subsequently modified by suggestion from Lieutenant Colonel Tom
Harris Hunter of the R.A.S.C., was named The 51st Country Dance (Laufen
Reel). The dance was first performed in public at Officer's Camp 7B at
Warburg in Westphalia, Hallowe'en 1941, before Major General Victor Fortune
who approved the dance and its name.

Copies of the dance eventually reached Perth, Scotland, where the dance was
known briefly as The St Valery Reel. However, this title was short-lived and
the dance was given the name by which we now know it, The Reel of the 51st
Division.

Initially, the R.S.C.D.S. refused to accept the dance. However, its
popularity resulted in its eventual acceptance - but not without a few
modifications. The original five-couple set was reduced to four, and a bow,
which has ended the first eight bars, was deleted. The dance appeared in
RSCDS Book 13 (the 1951 edition), the "original" tune being The Drunken
Piper. The tune most used in the prison camps where the dance was danced
during the war was My Love She's But A Lassie Yet!. For his "Prison-Camp"
version of the Reel of the 51st, this is the lead tune used by Fred Moyes on
his CD "What You Hear is What You Get!"

Most of the above information is derived from an article by Michael Young,
which appeared in TACTALK. It was made available to me by J.D. Shaw of
London (Canada) and R. Anglin of Ottowa, both enthusiastic Scottish Country
Dancers and former army officers. The Reel od the 51st Division was danced
by a battledress-clad group of ten men at the Teacher's Association of
Canada Summer School Ceilidhs in 1994 and 2004, with a uniformed Fred Moyes
providing the "original" music on both occasions.

Fred Moyes 2004