Six miniature medals: a) Territorial Forces Efficiency Medal, b) Queen’s South Africa Medal – 1900 with bars – Laing’s Nek, Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape Colony, South Africa 1901, d) King’s South Africa Medal – 1902; e) 1914 – 1915 Star, 1918, f) British War Medal 1918, g) Victory Medal, 1919.

Born in 1879 in Arbroath, Forfarshire, Scotland, Alexander Reid Keith served 18 months as a piper with the 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders in South Africa and thirteen years with the London Scottish before immigrating to Canada in 1909. He served as a Colour Sergeant with the 97th Regiment( Algonquin Rifles) before transferring to the 48th Regiment (Highlanders) at the outbreak of the war in 1914. He attested into the 15th Battalion as a Sergeant Piper at Valcartier in September 1914 and assumed the position of Pipe Major which he retained for the duration of the war. Pipe Major Keith served with the battalion in every major engagement of the war including 2nd Ypres, Festubert, Mount Sorrel, The Somme, Vimy, Hill 70, Amiens and the 100 Days battles of the D-Q Line and the Canal du Nord. As well as his responsibilities as Pipe Major, Sgt Keith also cared for the battalion’s famous and much loved mascot Bruno.