Congratulations to Allister Macgregor who received his MNZM (Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit) on Friday for services to pipe bands.
Allister was joined by his family at Government House in Wellington, where the Governor General – Her Excellency The Rt Hon Dame Cindy Kiro – presented him with his insignia.
From everyone in the New Zealand pipe band community, congratulations Allister.
MACGREGOR, Mr Allister Morrison
https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/honours/lists/kb2024-mnzm#macgregoral
For services to pipe bands
Mr Allister Macgregor was a Board member from 2012 to 2023 and President from 2014 to 2018 of the Royal New Zealand Pipe Bands Association (RNZBPA).
Mr Macgregor drove the growth in youth participation in pipe bands via an education programme and the National Youth Band of New Zealand. He introduced livestreaming of the New Zealand Pipe Band Championships, receiving international attention for New Zealand’s pipe bands. To revive the diminished state of pipe bands in Southland, he donated his own money and time towards establishing the Southland Piping and Drumming Development Trust in 2007, chairing it until 2014 and since serving as Treasurer and Secretary. Through the Trust two internationally recognised teachers were hired, beginning a world-class community-focused teaching programme in Southland. This helped revive the City of Invercargill Caledonian Pipe Band, the oldest civilian pipe band in the Southern hemisphere. The Trust continues to provide music tuition in Southland schools and through the Invercargill band, which now comprises five bands across all grades including a premier grade one band. He established the New Zealand Piping Centre in Otago in 2017, which has created a teaching programme in Dunedin. He became President of the Otago Centre of the RNZBPA in 2023. Mr Macgregor organised an inaugural pipe band competition in Queenstown in 2024.
