 He was an instructor for the Aberdeen Amateur Piper's Society and often played at for parades and marches, and at Highland games.He won the Beatty silver cup, a competition open to pipers of the Highland regiments, and, in 1905, was awarded Good Conduct and Long Service Medals.It was during his time in Aberdeen that he was given the set of silver-mounted pipes which had been bought for him by Colonel Dick-Cunningham, of the Gordons, who had been killed in South Africa.