1958 in Scotland

Events from the year 1958 in Scotland.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – John Maclay

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – William Rankine Milligan
• Solicitor General for Scotland – William Grant

Judiciary

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

Events

• 13 March – Glasgow Kelvingrove by-election results in a Labour gain from the Unionists
• May – nuclear development: Dounreay materials test reactor achieves criticality
• 3 May – Aberdeen Corporation Tramways cease to operate, leaving Glasgow as the only tram network in Scotland. The latter would close four years later in 1962.
• 20 May – railway collision at Arklestone Junction, Paisley; 97 injured
• 7 June – Ian Donald publishes an article in The Lancet describing the diagnostic use of ultrasound in obstetrics as pioneered in Glasgow
• 4 July – St Ninian's Isle Treasure discovered in Shetland by schoolboy Douglas Coutts.
• 11 July – Peter Manuel hanged at HM Prison Barlinnie for at least seven murders.
• 18 August – Regional postage stamps of Great Britain are first issued.
• 1 September – First of the 'Cod Wars' between the UK and Iceland over fishing rights breaks out.
• 15 September – British Railways railbuses introduced on Gleneagles–Crieff–Comrie line
• 19 September – John Duncan Mackie is appointed Historiographer Royal
• October – Thurso High School opened
• 21 November – Construction of the Forth Road Bridge begins. It would open on 4 September 1964, following a ceremony by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.
• 5 December – Subscriber trunk dialling (STD) is inaugurated on the UK telephone network when The Queen makes a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost
• 25 December – Christmas Day is a public holiday in Scotland for the first time
• Neolithic Tomb of the Eagles on South Ronaldsay in Orkney first explored by Ronald Simison.

Births

• 30 January – Derek White, rugby player
• 9 February – Sandy Lyle, golfer
• 22 February – Gordon Kennedy, actor
• 27 March – Peter Howson, figurative painter, war artist
• 14 April – Peter Capaldi, screen actor
• 25 April – Fish (Derek William Dick), neo-progressive rock singer
• 26 April – John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute (John Bute or Johnny Dumfries), racing driver (died 2021)
• 3 June – Cameron Sharp, sprinter
• 17 May – Alan Rankine, musician and producer
• 2 August – Elaine C. Smith, comic actress
• 17 August – Fred Goodwin, banker
• 30 August – Muriel Gray, broadcaster
• 20 September – Maureen Baker, physician
• 27 September – Irvine Welsh, novelist, playwright and short story writer
• Christina McAnea, trade union leader
• Harry Ritchie, writer and journalist
• James Robertson, novelist
• Adrian Wiszniewski, figurative painter

Deaths

• 8 January – Walter Elliot, Scottish Unionist Party MP (born 1888)
• 29 March – Sir William Burrell, shipowner and art collector (born 1861)
• 2 April – Mary Barbour, political activist, local councillor and magistrate (born 1875)
• 3 September – Norman Kemp Smith, philosopher (born 1872)
• 19 September – Sir John Dick-Lauder, 11th Baronet, soldier (born 1883 in British India)

The arts

• 7 May – first broadcast of the BBC television variety show The White Heather Club which airs nationally until 1968

See also

• 1958 in Northern Ireland

References