1959 in Scotland explained

Events from the year 1959 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

• 1 January – 5 members of the Universal Hiking Club of Glasgow die in a storm in the Grampians.^[1]
• 9 January – Clyde-built fisheries protection vessel Freya founders off Caithness with the loss of 3 of her crew of 20.^[2]
• 28 January – a Glasgow Corporation Tramways tramcar collides with a lorry and catches fire in Shettleston Road with 3 killed.^[3]
• 2 May – the Chapelcross nuclear power station opens.^[4]
• 4 July – British Railways close their Kilmarnock Works.
• 18 September – Auchengeich mining disaster: 47 miners die as the result of an underground fire at Auchengeich Colliery, Lanarkshire.^[5]
• 8 October – United Kingdom general election results in a record third successive Conservative victory.^[6] Harold Macmillan increases the Conservative majority to 100 seats across the UK^[7] but the Unionist Party in Scotland loses 4 seats.
• 14 November – the nuclear Dounreay fast reactor achieves criticality.^[8]
• 17 November – Prestwick and Renfrew Airports become the first in the U.K. with duty-free shops.^[9]
• 6 December – Aberdeen trawler George Robb runs aground at Duncansby Head in a severe gale with the loss of all 12 crew.^[10]
• 7 December – Leith coaster Servus runs aground below Dunbeath Castle; her crew are rescued by life-boat.^[11]
• 8 December – Broughty Ferry life-boat Mona capsizes on service to North Carr Lightship with the loss of all 8 of the life-boat crew.
• William Theodore Heard is elevated to cardinal, the first Scot to hold such an office since the Reformation.
• St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society opens Scotland's first supermarket in Edinburgh.^[12]
• North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board's Sloy-Awe Hydro-Electric Power Scheme becomes fully operational; and peat-fired generating station at Altnabreac opened.
• North Highland College established.
• The fossil ichthyosaur Dearcmhara is first discovered by Brian Shawcross on the Trotternish peninsula of Skye.

Births

• 31 January – Heather Anderson, SNP politician
• 12 April – Jackson Carlaw, Conservative politician. leader of the Scottish Conservatives
• 16 April – Alison Ramsay, field hockey player
• 27 April – Sheena Easton, singer
• 27 May – Gerard Kelly, television and pantomime actor (died 2010 in London)
• 9 July – Jim Kerr, rock singer-songwriter
• 16 July – James MacMillan, composer
• 27 July – Siobhan Redmond, actress
• 28 July – Lorraine Fullbrook, Conservative politician
• 31 July – Andrew Marr, print and television journalist
• 29 August – Eddi Reader, folk singer-songwriter
• 7 September – Rona Munro, dramatist and screenwriter
• 8 September – Judy Murray, tennis player and coach^[13]
• 10 October – Mark Johnston, racehorse trainer
• 25 November – Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats (died 2015)^[14]
• 30 November – Lorraine Kelly, television presenter
• date unknown
  • Meg Bateman, Gaelic writer and poet^[15]
  • Robert Crawford, poet and literary scholar
  • Andy Gray, actor (died 2021)
  • Alexander Stoddart, sculptor

Deaths

• 2 July – William Weir, 1st Viscount Weir, industrialist and politician (born 1877)
• 1 October – Evelyn Vida Baxter, ornithologist (born 1879)^[16]
• 15 November – Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869)
• 25 November – Robert Smyth McColl, footballer and retail store founder (born 1876)

The arts

• Jane Duncan's first novel My Friends the Miss Boyds is published by Macmillan.

See also

• 1959 in Northern Ireland

Notes and References

1. Web site: Paul. Shorrock. Callater Stables Bothy and the Jock's Road Tragedy of 1959. 2019-11-04. One Man's Mountains. 2020-10-06.
2. News: The Times. Protection Cruiser Heeled Over. 1959-05-11. 14. 54457. London.
3. Book: Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. Tramway accidents: Report on the collision and subsequent fire which occurred on 28th January 1959 to a Glasgow Corporation tramcar in Shettleston Road, Glagow. H.M.S.O. 1959.
4. Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
5. News: Community pays tribute to Auchengeich mining disaster victims. https://archive.today/20120906091544/http://www.kirkintilloch-herald.co.uk/news/Community-pays-tribute-to-Auchengeich.3192264.jp. dead. 6 September 2012. Kirkintilloch Herald. 11 September 2007. 2013-04-06.
6. Web site: 1959: 'Supermac' leads Tories to victory. BBC News. 2008-02-05. 9 October 1959. https://web.archive.org/web/20080307122135/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/9/newsid_3095000/3095531.stm. 7 March 2008. live.
7. Web site: 1959 General election results summary. UK Political Info. 2014-07-23.
8. Book: The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. 1-85986-000-1.
9. Web site: Chronology of Scottish History. A Timeline of Scottish History. Rampant Scotland. 2014-07-23.
10. Web site: MFV George Robb (A406). 2012. WreckSite. 2014-07-23.
11. Web site: MV Servus. 2008. WreckSite. 2014-07-23.
12. Facelift for the first Scots supermarket. The Grocer. 2009-06-06. 2014-04-03.
13. Web site: University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Judy Murray . universitystory.gla.ac.uk . 8 March 2021.
14. Web site: Charles Kennedy obituary . The Guardian . 31 May 2021 . en . 2015-06-02.
15. Web site: Meg Bateman Birlinn Ltd – Independent Scottish Publisher . Birlinn Ltd . 22 April 2020.
16. Book: Ewan . Elizabeth L. . Innes . Sue . Reynolds . Sian . Pipes . Rose . Biographical Dictionary of ScottishWomen . 2007 . Edinburgh University Press . 9780748626601 . 32 . en.