Bill Millin William " Bill " Millin ( 14 July 1922 – 17 August 2010 ) , commonly known as Piper Bill , was personal piper to Simon Fraser , 15th Lord Lovat , commander of 1 Special Service Brigade at D - Day . Early life . He was born in Regina , Saskatchewan , Canada on 14 July 1922 to a father of Scottish origin who returned to Glasgow as a policeman when William was three . He grew up and went to school in the Shettleston area of the city . He joined the Territorial Army in Fort William , where his family had moved , and played in the pipe bands of the Highland Light Infantry and the Queen ' s Own Cameron Highlanders before volunteering as a commando and training with Lovat at Achnacarry along with French , Dutch , Belgian , Polish , Norwegian , and Czechoslovakian troops . World War II . Millin is best remembered for playing the pipes whilst under fire during the D - Day landing in Normandy . Pipers had traditionally been used in battle by Scottish and Irish soldiers . However , the use of bagpipes was restricted to rear areas by the time of the Second World War by the British Army . Lovat , nevertheless , ignored these orders and ordered Millin , then aged 21 , to play . When Private Millin demurred , citing the regulations , he recalled later , Lord Lovat replied : “ Ah , but that ’ s the English War Office . You and I are both Scottish , and that doesn ’ t apply . ” He played " Hielan ' Laddie " and " The Road to the Isles " as his comrades fell around him on Sword Beach . Millin states that he later talked to captured German snipers who claimed they did not shoot at him because they thought he was crazy . Millin , whom Lovat had appointed his personal piper during commando training at Achnacarry , near Fort William in Scotland , was the only man during the landing who wore a kilt – it was the same Cameron tartan kilt his father had worn in Flanders during World War I – and he was armed only with his pipes and the sgian - dubh , or " black knife " , sheathed inside his kilt - hose on the right side . Lovat and Millin advanced from Sword Beach to Pegasus Bridge , which had been defiantly defended by men of the 2nd Bn the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry ( 6th Airborne Division ) who had landed in the early hours by glider . Lovat ' s commandos arrived at a little past one p . m . at Pegasus Bridge although the rendezvous time in the plan was noon . To the sound of Millin ' s bagpipes , the commandos marched across Pegasus Bridge as a result of which twelve men died , shot through their berets . Later detachments of the commandos rushed across in small groups with helmets on . Millin ' s D - Day bagpipes were later donated to the now Pegasus Bridge Museum . Later life . Millin saw further action with 1 SSB in the Netherlands and Germany before being demobbed ( demobilised ) in 1946 and going to work on Lord Lovat ' s highland estate . In the 1950s he became a registered psychiatric nurse in Glasgow , moving south to a hospital in Devon in the late ' 60s until he retired in the Devon town of Dawlish in 1988 . He made regular trips back to Normandy for commemoration ceremonies . France awarded him a Croix d ’ Honneur award for gallantry in June 2009 . In 2006 , a Devon folk singer , Sheelagh Allen , wrote a song about him , " The Highland Piper " . Millin , who suffered a stroke in 2003 , died in hospital in Torbay on 17 August 2010 , aged 88 . His wife Margaret ( née Dowdel , from Edinburgh ) died in 2000 . He was survived by their son John . Popular culture and legacy . Millin ' s action on D - Day was portrayed in the 1962 film " The Longest Day " . Millin was played by Pipe Major Leslie de Laspee , the official piper to the Queen Mother in 1961 . One set of Millin ' s bagpipes are exhibited at the Memorial Museum of Pegasus Bridge in Ranville , France . French fundraisers have been trying to raise £80 , 000 to erect a statue of Piper Millin at Colleville - Montgomery , a town on Sword Beach , but have been disappointed by only six of the 87 donations having come from the UK . Another set of his bagpipes are now displayed at Dawlish Museum . Millin presented his pipes to Dawlish Museum prior to the 60th anniversary of the D - Day Landings in 2004 , along with his kilt , bonnet and dirk . These items are still shown at the museum library with photographic archives and looped video telling of Millin ’ s exploits . With the help of son John Millin and the Dawlish Royal British Legion , a bronze life - size statue of Piper Bill Millin was unveiled on 8 June 2013 at Colleville - Montgomery , near Sword Beach , in France . On August 7 , 2013 , BBC ' s The One Show featured a film about Piper Bills son John Millin and his playing of the bagpipes in memory of his father at the unveiling of the statue to Piper Bill at Colleville - Montgomery in Normandy . Broadcast live , from Weston - Super - Mare , Larry Lamb explained that Bill Millins pipes and uniform are on display at Dawlish Museum in Devon . The film also showed scenes of more than 500 pipers from 21 countries taking part in the unveiling of the £50 , 000 statue by French sculptor Gaetan Ader which took more than four years of fund raising by the D - Day Piper Bill Millin Association to complete . Link to the program - http : / / www . youtube . com / watch ? v = zS0UJlGFFqM .