1883 in Scotland explained

Events from the year 1883 in Scotland.

Incumbents

20 January – Fenian dynamite campaign: In Glasgow, bombs explode at Tradeston Gasworks, Possil Street Bridge and Buchanan Street railway station; about a dozen people are injured.^[1] ^[2]
28 April – the first rugby sevens tournament is played at Melrose RFC.^[3]
3 June – Sabbatarian riot at Stromeferry: the local fishing community prevent the loading of fish (caught by east coast fishermen) from Stornoway ships to railway on a Sunday.^[4]
3 July – SS Daphne sinks on launch at Alexander Stephen and Sons' Linthouse shipyard, leaving 124 dead.^[5]
29 August – Dunfermline Carnegie Library, the first Carnegie library in the world, is opened in Andrew Carnegie's hometown, Dunfermline.^[6]
4 October – the Boys' Brigade is founded in Glasgow.^[7]
November–December – the Tay Whale (a humpback) appears in the Firth of Tay; on 31 December it is harpooned but escapes, dying later.
Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank at Dumbarton completed.
Edinburgh Mathematical Society founded.

Curling
- Scotland's first boys' club is established in Wanlockhead.
Rugby union
- Scotland take part in the inaugural Home Nations Championship.
- Scotlands first home international game played at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh.
- First match against Wales, hosted at St. Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea; Scotland win by three goals to one.

17 January – Compton Mackenzie, author and co-founder in 1928 of the Scottish National Party (born in England; died 1972)
27 January – James Lithgow, industrialist (died 1952)
24 March – Dorothy Campbell, golfer (died 1945 in the United States)
12 April – Francis Cadell, Colourist painter (died 1937)
15 May – Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, British Army officer and Unionist politician (killed in action 1915 in France)
5 June – Mary Helen Young, nurse and resistance fighter during World War II (died 1945 in Germany)^[8]
9 July – John Watson, advocate and sheriff, Solicitor General for Scotland 1929–31 (died 1944)
21 August – Victor Fortune, British Army officer (died 1949)
17 October – A. S. Neill, educationalist (died 1973 in England)
17 December – David Powell, stage and silent film actor (died 1925 in the United States)

27 March – John Brown, royal servant (born 1826)
8 May – John Miller, civil engineer (born 1805)
20 May – William Chambers, publisher and politician (born 1800)
2 July – John Strain, first Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh (born 1810)
9 August – Robert Moffat, missionary (born 1795)
David Rhind, architect (born 1808)

Book: Porter, Bernard. The Origins of the Vigilant State: the London Metropolitan Police Special Branch before the First World War. Repr.. Boydell & Brewer. Woodbridge. 1991. 085115283X.
Book: Kenna, Shane. War In The Shadows: the Irish-American Fenians who bombed Victorian Britain. Sallins. Merrion. 2014. 9781908928054.
Web site: History of Melrose Sevens. 2014-03-02. 18 February 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140218054032/http://www.melrose7s.com/index.php?page=history. dead.
Book: MacColl, Allan W.. Land, Faith and the Crofting Community: Christianity and Social Community in the Highlands of Scotland, 1843-1893. Edinburgh University Press. 2006. 0-7486-2382-5.
Web site: SS Daphne. https://web.archive.org/web/20060707071835/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=3340. dead. 2006-07-07. Clydebuilt Database. 2014-06-23.
Web site: Dunfermline, Abbot Street, Carnegie Central Library Canmore . canmore.org.uk . 15 April 2020 . en.
Web site: History. The Boys' Brigade. 2013-06-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20100323082236/http://www.boys-brigade.org.uk/history.htm. 23 March 2010. dead. dmy-all.
Young, Mary Helen (1883–1945), nurse and resistance worker . 2004 . 24 August 2022 . en . 10.1093/ref:odnb/73212. 978-0-19-861412-8 . Watson . Fiona R. .