John Terence ‘the best damn piper in the world’

West Lincoln man was longest-serving head of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders pipes and drums

If John Terence’s father had not brought home a record of pipe band music when he was a kid, who knows how his life would have turned out.

Even though he thought at the time it wasn’t a very good record.

“I got interested after my dad bought a record with pipe band music,” Terence told The Spectator in 1997 about his lifelong passion with the bagpipe.

“It was a horrible record, but for some reason it got me hooked.”

The West Lincoln resident — who died suddenly May 26 at 76 — went on to become the longest-serving pipe major of the Pipes and Drums of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada. He served in that role from 1973 to 2001 and took the band to places all over the world.

Terence was also an organizer and producer, starting in 2001, of the Canadian International Military Tattoo at Copps Coliseum. The event attracted pipe and drum bands from all over when it ran between 1992-2016 and attendance reached 10,000 some years.

His daughter Jeanne Small of Red Deer, Alta., says her father touched the lives of many people and his passing has left a “massive hole in our hearts and our lives.” She said he collapsed and died just after taking part in a virtual band practice.

“You were a soldier, a gentleman and the best damn piper in the world,” friend Ron Woodford said on social media.

Argylls Commanding Officer Carlo Tittarelli and Honorary Colonel Glenn Gibson posted a statement on the regiment’s website saying the death of Terence was sad and distressing.

They compared him to pipe major Charles Dunbar, who was the “great leader” of the band before the Second World War.

The pipe and drum band was founded in 1903 and it has had 13 pipe majors.

Terence was born in Yorkshire, England, on Dec. 17, 1944. His father John was a pilot in the Royal Air Force. His mother Margaret was a Canadian.

The family came to Canada after the war. His father worked as a light salesperson and the family moved around southern Ontario before settling down in Brantford Township. His mother became the first woman elected to township council.

Terence graduated from Pauline Johnson High School in Brantford before starting a 40year career installing and servicing switchboards with Bell Canada.

Terence joined the Argylls in August 1958 and was on active service until June 2001. He retired as a chief warrant officer. He received his third clasp to his Canadian Forces Decoration from the Queen at Balmoral Castle in 2000. The Queen is Colonel-in-Chief of the Argylls.

The pipes even played a role in Terence’s love life. In 1965, he went to Milton to teach the town’s girl pipe band and met Lynda Watson. They were married in 1967.

After Terence retired, he still volunteered with the pipe and drums and was affectionately known as Pipe Major Emeritus. Just three days before his death he played three tunes in Ancaster for a video to cheer an aged Argyll supporter.

Terence was active with the Hugh Murray Lodge 602, where he served as Grand Lodge Piper, the Order of the Eastern Star (Binbrook chapter) and the Royal Canadian Legion in Smithville. He was also known for his massive vegetable garden and a menagerie of animals at his rural home.

Terence is survived by his wife Lynda, daughters Jeanne, Jacqueline and Julie, and grandson Owen. He was predeceased by his brother Ronald.