1943 in Scotland

Events from the year 1943 in Scotland.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Tom Johnston

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – James Reid
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Sir David King Murray

Judiciary

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

Events

• 11 February – At the Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election, the radical socialist Common Wealth Party candidate Tom Wintringham comes close to winning the seat (which is held for the Unionist Party by Sir David King Murray).
• 24 February – Royal Navy submarine is lost with all 37 crew on sea trials in the Sound of Bute; she would not be located until 1994.
• 27 March – Royal Navy escort carrier is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.
• 21 April – "Big Blitz" bombing of Aberdeen.
• 30 May – Royal Navy submarine is lost with all hands on a training exercise in the Firth of Clyde.
• 19 June – Jackie Paterson wins the world flyweight boxing title by a knockout in the first minute at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
• 5 August – North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board established by Act of Parliament (with headquarters in Edinburgh).
• 11 November – Total evacuation of an area near Portmahomack in Easter Ross begins, to make way for rehearsal of the Normandy Landings.
• 2 December – Broughty Ferry pigeon Winkie, serving with the Royal Air Force, is among the first recipients of the Dickin Medal, instituted to honour the work of animals in war.
• The last crofting family leaves the island of South Rona.
• Ferranti open a plant at Crewe Toll in Edinburgh, originally to manufacture gyro gunsights for aircraft.

Births

• 23 January – Ernie Hannigan, footballer (died 2015 in Australia)
• 31 January – Peter McRobbie, screen actor in the United States
• 18 February – Graeme Garden, author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, one of The Goodies
• 1 March – Witold Rybczynski, Canadian American architect, born in Edinburgh
• 3 April – John Hughes, footballer (died 2022))
• 16 April – Morris Stevenson, footballer (died 2014)
• 19 April – Margo MacDonald, politician (died 2014)
• 1 May – Ian Dunn, gay and paedophile rights activist, founder of the Scottish Minorities Group (died 1998)
• 5 May – Kay Ullrich, politician (died 2021)
• 10 May – Jack Bruce, rock musician (died 2014)
• 22 June – J. Michael Kosterlitz, Scottish-born condensed matter physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• 16 July – Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins, comedy writer
• 18 July – Robin MacDonald, pop guitarist (died 2015)
• 20 August – Sylvester McCoy, born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith, actor
• 16 October – Tommy Gemmell, footballer (died 2017)
• 24 November – Robin Williamson, acoustic musician
• 28 November – George T. Miller, film director (died 2023 in Australia)
• Alan Bold, poet and biographer (died 1998)
• G. C. Peden, historian
• D. R. Thorpe, biographer

Deaths

• 17 June – Annie S. Swan, novelist (born 1859)
• 8 September - Anderson Gray McKendrick, military physician and epidemiologist, (born 1876)
• 15 October – William Soutar, poet (born 1898)
• 23 December – George Henry, painter (born 1858)
• Ann Scott-Moncrieff, author (born 1914)

The arts

• November – Sorley MacLean's first collection of Gaelic poems, Dàin do Eimhir agus Dàin Eile, is published.
• Glasgow Citizens Theatre founded.
• Poetry Scotland magazine founded in Glasgow by Maurice Lindsay.

See also

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1943 in Northern Ireland

References