Black Watch White House 1963

[OC Richard]

I have in front of me the programme for the Black Watch's 1963 North American tour.

Early in the tour, on 13 November, they performed for an appreciative President Kennedy.

The tour was interrupted when the President was assassinated and the Kennedy family asked The Black Watch to play at his funeral, on 25 November.

The 1989 programme of the Black Watch North American tour states:

"In 1963 the Regimental Band, Pipes and Drums was honoured by being requested to play at The White House for President John F Kennedy. A month later they were again called to The White House for a very different occasion: the Kennedy family requested the pipers of The Black Watch to play at the funeral of the fallen President (making the Black Watch) the only British regiment ever requested to play at the funeral of an American President."

Here at 22:42 the pipers of The Black Watch can be seen and heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KJQkn6zUvM

(The military band in scarlet tunics seen at 18:05 is The President's Own, of the US Marine Corps.)

There is a tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jtY1n_Y-QE

(The tour programme doesn't list the tour itinerary and dates, as they usually do, so I can't be sure that the tour was interrupted for the funeral. But that is the story usually told.)