The Last-Chancers

James L. McWilliams is a member of SOCAN, Canadian Authors Association Vancouver Branch, BC Pipers Association, Society for Army Historical Research (British) and Tabitha (Canadian volunteer workers in Cambodia). He was born on May 31st, 1938 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in the heart of the prairies. He spent much of his early life in a homesteader's lean-to perched above a bend of the Moose Jaw Creek.Jim grew up loving the prairies and the outdoors. There, bed-time stories were tales of his Grandmother Norgate's family in England. His paternal grandfather had survived an encounter with Sioux from the Little Bighorn, and one great-grandfather served in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885.These facts probably account for Jim's enduring interest in anything historical.In 1956, after a lack-luster scholastic performance at Moose Jaw Central Collegiate, he enlisted in the Canadian Army as a Piper destined for the Black Watch of Canada. Things didn't work out that way, and after what one Colonel described as an astoundingly chequered career Jim McWilliams emerged from Camp Borden, Ontario, as a Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, and with a B.A. in English and History from the University of Saskatchewan.Along the way he worked as a labourer, a steamfitter's helper, a hardware clerk, an apprentice switchman, a cook/waiter, a drumming instructor, a Petroleum Engineering student at Oklahoma University, a houseboy in a sorority house and a Social Worker.He settled on a teaching career beginning in Calgary at the Strathcona School for Boys, ending thirty rewarding years later at A.E. Peacock High School in Moose Jaw. During those years, although he devoted much of his free time to Piping, Jim's interest in history did not wane, and he compiled a History of Piping to be used at the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts in the Piping and Drumming School which he had founded.This mega-project completed (but still unpublished) somehow led to Jim writing The Suicide Battalion, a history of Moose Jaw's famous 46th Battalion of the First World War, and Gas! The Battle for Ypres 1915, which were co-authored with R. James Steel.He also produced a string of pamphlets and articles dealing with piping and history. Two articles, The Last Patrol for Private Price December, 1979 and Gabriel Dumont in 1980 appeared in Reader's Digest. Both were nominated for national literary awards.In 1993, Jim began a new career as a retiree in Cloverdale, British Columbia. He maintains his enthusiasm for history and writing. Since retirement, he has written extensively for Esprit de Corps, Canada's national military journal. He co-authored another First World War book with R. James Steel, AMIENS: Dawn of Victory (published in Britain as Amiens 1918 and again as Amiens 1918: The Last Great Battle). Jim's current passion is writing and editing The MacHugh Memoirs, a seven-book historical adventure series featuring Rory MacHugh - piper, warrior, spy and much-adored ladies man - whenever he isn't getting himself into trouble with history's notables, like Napoleon Bonaparte, The Duke of Wellington, Tecumseh and Davy Crockett.