1940 in Scotland

Events from the year 1940 in Scotland.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – John Colville until 10 May; vacant until 14 May; then Ernest Brown

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Thomas Mackay Cooper
• Solicitor General for Scotland – James Reid

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Normand
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Aitchison
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Murray

Events

• 1 January – the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939 outlawed "irregular" marriages ("marriage by declaration" or "handfasting") from this date, ending the practice of "anvil marriage" at Gretna Green.
• 17 January – World War II: sank SS Polzella and the neutral Norwegian ship Enid 10 miles north of Shetland.
• 26 January – World War II: Requisitioned , while being towed to Scapa Flow, was sunk by a mine probably laid by German submarine U-57 off the entrance to Cromarty Firth.
• 9 February – World War II: A German aircraft was forced down on North Berwick Law.
• February – The last mounted charge by a British cavalry regiment was made when the Royal Scots Greys were called to quell Arab rioters in Mandatory Palestine.
• 3–9 March – made her maiden voyage on delivery from Clydebank to New York.
• 11 March – World War II: Scotland north and west of the Great Glen and Inverness became a restricted area.
• 16 March – World War II: First civilian casualty of bombing in the UK, on Orkney.
• 10 April – World War II: the was sunk at Bergen by British Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua dive bombers flying from RNAS Hatston in Orkney.
• 30 April – was sunk by accidental explosion off Greenock.
• May – construction of Churchill Barriers on Orkney began.
• 9 May – Guy Lloyd won the East Renfrewshire by-election for the Unionist Party.
• 29 May – World War II: Requisitioned Clyde steamers Queen-Empress, Duchess of Fife, Oriole (called Eagle on the Clyde), Marmion and Waverley took part in the Dunkirk evacuation; Waverley was lost.
• 12 June – World War II: More than 10,000 soldiers of the 51st (Highland) Division under General Victor Fortune surrendered to General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.
• 16 June – World War II: The troopships , , , , and steamed in convoy into the River Clyde and anchored off Gourock with the first large contingent of Australian and New Zealand troops.
• 24 June–1 July – World War II: Operation Fish – Royal Navy cruiser sailed from Greenock in convoy to Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying a large part of the gold reserves of the United Kingdom and securities for safe keeping in Canada. Another convoy set sail on 5 July from the Clyde, including HMS Batory, carrying cargo worth $1.7 billion, the largest movement of wealth in history.
• 1 July – World War II: First Luftwaffe daylight bombing raid on mainland Britain at Bank Row, Wick: 15 civilians, 8 of them children, killed.
• 19 July – World War II:
• First Luftwaffe daylight raid on Glasgow; little damage was caused.
• Radio Caledonia, ostensibly a nationalist anti-government station of a Scottish Peace Front but in fact a black propaganda operation of the Nazi Büro Concordia, begins broadcasting to Scotland, presented by Donald Grant. It continues nightly broadcasts intermittently until 24 July 1942, although with poor reception.
• 20 July – World War II: A Luftwaffe bomb largely destroyed the stand at King's Park F.C.'s Forthbank Park in Stirling, leading to the demise of the club.
• 16 September – World War II: British liner SS Aska was bombed by a German aircraft south of Gigha whilst carrying French troops from Gambia; 12 crew died but 75 survivors were picked up by trawlers.
• 18 September – World War II: Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS Sussex is hit by bombs in Glasgow while undergoing mechanical repairs and is kept out of service until August 1942.
• November – World War II: Building of No. 1 Military Port at Faslane on the Gare Loch and No. 2 Military Port at Cairnryan began. Garelochhead Training Area is also established this year.
• Kilquhanity School near Castle Douglas was founded by John Aitkenhead.

Births

• 6 January – John Byrne, playwright and artist
• 11 January – Sydney Devine, singer (died 2021)
• 18 January – Lindsay L. Cooper, jazz string player (died 2001)
• 24 February – Denis Law, international footballer (died 2025)
• 28 February – Jim Baikie, comics artist (died 2017)
• 2 March – Billy McNeill, Celtic footballer and manager (died 2019)
• 3 March – Patricia Gage, actress (died 2010 in Canada)
• 15 March – Jack Whyte, historical novelist (died 2021 in Canada)
• 19 April – Dougal Haston, mountaineer (killed 1977 in the Swiss Alps)
• 14 May
• Chay Blyth, yachtsman and adventurer
• Sir George Ross Mathewson, businessman
• 23 May – Giles Gordon, author and agent (died 2003)
• 8 June - Stanley Robertson, folk singer, ballad singer and piper (died 2009)
• 23 June
• Derry Irvine, Baron Irvine of Lairg, Lord Chancellor
• Stuart Sutcliffe, pop musician and artist (died 1962 in Hamburg)
• 28 June – Roderick Wright, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (Catholic) (died 2005 in New Zealand)
• 29 June – Bill Napier, astronomer and science fiction author
• 1 July – Craig Brown, footballer and Scotland national football team manager (died 2023)
• 10 July – Tom Farmer, entrepreneur (died 2025)
• 28 July – Brigit Forsyth, actress, born in Yorkshire (died 2023)
• 4 August – Robin Harper, Green politician
• 20 August – Gus Macdonald, television journalist and Labour politician
• 3 November – Charlie Gallagher, footballer (died 2021)
• 4 November – Sally Baldwin, social sciences professor (died 2003 in Italy)
• 24 November – Donald Macleod, theologian
• 1 December – Mike Denness, international cricketer (died 2013)
• William Barr, Arctic historian
• Peter Kerr, travel writer

Deaths

• 11 February – John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, novelist, historian and Unionist politician (born 1875; died in Canada)
• 18 June – Sir George Andreas Berry, ophthalmologist and Unionist politician (born 1853)
• 19 November – James Cromar Watt, artist, architect and jeweller (born 1862)
• 16 December – William Wallace, classical composer and ophthalmologist (born 1860; died in England)
• Dugald Campbell, doctor from the Isle of Arran, set up the national health service in Hawaii during the 1890s

The arts

• Publication of The Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry edited by Hugh MacDiarmid.

See also

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1940 in Northern Ireland

References