A PIPER who played in the haggis for the Westmorland Caledonian Society’s Burns Night celebrations for almost 60 years has died aged 95.

Len Henson, of Heysham, was born in Manchester on August 23, 1914, and his family moved to Morecambe two years later.

His musical gift was discovered after purchasing some bagpipes in Scotland, and Mr Henson was soon performing at church fetes, weddings and funerals.

Mr Henson also enjoyed boxing, and adopted a clean lifestyle – as a teatotaller and regular Bible reader.

In 1933, he joined the first battalion of the Highland Light Infantry (HLI), where he became a signaller and played for the pipe band.

Five years later he married Edna and during the war he was in active service on the continent – evacuated from Dunkirk and decorated by Field Marshall Montgomery.

After the war he was employed by the North West Electricity Board, and in 1952 founded the Luneside Pipe Band and Dancers – which delighted audiences for decades, even playing for the Queen at the Royal Albert Hall.

Tragedy struck in 1971 when his 24-year-old son Malcolm, a BBC engineer, was murdered by the IRA with four other civilians, when their Land Rover was blown up on the Brougher Mountain. Every year since Mr Henson visited the site on the anniversary of his son’s death to play the pipes.

On one of these trips he lost his left eye in an accident which resulted in him wearing his trademark eye-patch.

He is survived by wife Edna, daughter Anthea, son-in-law Tom, granddaughters, Karen and Gail, and their husbands Stuart and John, and great grandchildren, Emma, Jamie and Alexander.

Mr Henson died following a short illness on October 3.

His funeral took place on Monday at Stanley Road Baptist Church in Morecambe and was followed by cremation at the Lancaster and Morecambe Crematorium.