1959 in Scotland

Events from the year 1959 in Scotland.

← 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1959 in Scotland → 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1959 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere Scottish football: 1958–59 • 1959–60 1959 in Scottish television

Incumbents

Further information: Politics of Scotland and Order of precedence in Scotland

• 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

References

1. Shorrock, Paul (4 November 2019). "Callater Stables Bothy and the Jock's Road Tragedy of 1959". One Man's Mountains. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
2. "Protection Cruiser Heeled Over". The Times. No. 54457. London. 11 May 1959. p. 14.
3. Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (1959). 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.
4. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
5. "Community pays tribute to Auchengeich mining disaster victims". Kirkintilloch Herald. 11 September 2007. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
6. "1959: 'Supermac' leads Tories to victory". BBC News. 9 October 1959. from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
7. "1959 General election results summary". UK Political Info. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
8. The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
9. "Chronology of Scottish History". A Timeline of Scottish History. Rampant Scotland. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
10. "MFV George Robb (A406)". WreckSite. 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
11. "MV Servus". WreckSite. 2008. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
12. "Facelift for the first Scots supermarket". The Grocer. 6 June 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
13. "University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Judy Murray". universitystory.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
14. "Charles Kennedy obituary". The Guardian. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
15. "Meg Bateman | Birlinn Ltd – Independent Scottish Publisher". Birlinn Ltd. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
16. Ewan, Elizabeth L.; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Sian; Pipes, Rose (2007). Biographical Dictionary of ScottishWomen. Edinburgh University Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780748626601.