John Ross 70 years' of support for Dannevirke pipe bands recognised

Tararua Mayor Tracey Collis with the new patron of the Dannevirke Highland Pipe Band John Ross and band president Brownyn Wotherspoon.

Supporting the district's highland pipe bands for more than 70 years has seen Dannevirke's John Ross named patron of the Dannevirke Highland Pipe Band.

Ross, 86, says his support for pipe bands began when he started going to inglesides with his family at the age of 15.

He said there were inglesides almost every Saturday night somewhere around the district and he and his family went to them all.

At the time there were two pipe bands in the district, the Ruahine Highland Pipe Band and the Dannevirke and District Highland Pipe Band.

Eventually the Ruahine band went into recess and joined the Dannevirke band, becoming the Southern Hawke's Bay Highland Pipe Band.

However, the band had to change its name as it was entering competitions and had to be identified by a town so it became the Dannevirke Highland Pipe Band in 1969.

But times have changed and these days there are no longer the inglesides that were a big part of many communities.

In fact now, Ross says, there's an ingleside in Hastings once a month and in Mangatainoka once every three months.

Ross said his wife Joan was also involved in the band. She was a committee member for a time, and they both continued to support it in any way they could.

Their love of pipe bands extended to one of their children with their daughter Dianne joining the band as a drummer.

It's not surprising that Ross is such a staunch supporter of highland pipe bands.

His father William arrived with his parents and siblings in the district almost 100 years ago and settled in Dannevirke.

Ross was head of Clan Ross in New Zealand for six years and has twice been to Aberdeenshire, where his family was from.

He was a life member of the Southern Hawke's Bay Scottish Society which was wound up in 2016 after 48 years.

For his part, Ross is quite humble about becoming patron.

"I was quite surprised when they asked me," he said.