1939 in Scotland

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 1939
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See also:List of years in Scotland
Timeline of Scottish history
1939 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere
Scottish football: 1938–39 • 1939–40

Events from the year 1939 in Scotland.

Incumbents[]

Further information: Politics of Scotland and Order of precedence in Scotland
  • Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – John Colville

Law officers[]

  • Lord Advocate – Thomas Mackay Cooper
  • Solicitor General for Scotland – James Reid

Judiciary[]

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

Events[]

  • 2 January – all-time highest attendance for a U.K. Association football league game as 118,730 people watch Rangers beat Celtic in an "Old Firm derby" played at Ibrox Park in Glasgow.[1]
  • April – RAF Lossiemouth becomes operational.
  • 3 September – World War II:
    • Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Nazi Germany.
    • Clyde-built liner SS Athenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-30 in the vicinity of Rockall. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed;[2] the first survivors are brought in to Greenock.[1] On 7 September, survivors are visited by John F. Kennedy.[3]
  • 4 September
    • Civil servants of the Scottish Office begin to occupy its first office in Scotland, St Andrew's House on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
    • Several Citizens Advice Bureaux are founded in the United Kingdom to provide wartime information to the public, including Citizens Advice Edinburgh in Scotland.[4]
  • 30 September – Jackie Paterson wins the British flyweight boxing title in an open-air bout in Glasgow.[5]
  • 14 October – World War II: HMS Royal Oak sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands with the loss of 833 crew.[1]
  • 16 October – World War II: first enemy aircraft shot down by RAF Fighter Command, a Junkers Ju 88 brought down into the sea by Spitfires following an attack on Rosyth Naval Dockyard.[6]
  • 17 October – World War II: first bomb lands in the U.K., at Hoy in the Orkney Islands.[7]
  • 28 October
    • A dust explosion in the colliery at Valleyfield, Fife, kills 35.[1]
    • World War II: First enemy aircraft forced down on British soil by RAF Fighter Command, a Heinkel He 111 brought down near Humbie by a Spitfire flown by Archie McKellar following reconnaissance of the Firth of Clyde.[8]
  • 30 October – World War II: British battleship HMS Nelson is unsuccessfully attacked by U-56 under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn off Orkney and is hit by three torpedoes, none of which explode; Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound (First Sea Lord) and Admiral Charles Forbes (Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet) are on board.[8]
  • 1 December – World War II: German submarine U-21 torpedoes Finnish vessel Mercator off Peterhead and the Norwegian Arcturus in the Firth of Forth.[1]
  • 2 December – World War II: Swedish cargo ship Rudolf hits a mine and sinks off St Abb's Head.[1]
  • 4 December – World War II: battleship HMS Nelson is badly damaged by a mine (laid by U-31) at the entrance to Loch Ewe.
  • 12 December – escorting destroyer HMS Duchess (H64) sinks after a collision with battleship HMS Barham (04) off the Mull of Kintyre in heavy fog with the loss of 124 men.[9]
  • 17 December – Danish cargo ship Bogo sinks off Fife Ness.[1]
  • 21 December – boom defence vessel Bayonet explodes at Leith.[10]
  • HMS Spartiate is established as a Royal Navy shore establishment for Western Approaches Command at St Enoch's Hotel, Glasgow.
  • Strathcarron Reservoir on the River Carron is completed.

Births[]

  • 16 April – Donald MacCormick, broadcast journalist (died 2009)
  • 2 May – Mairi Hedderwick, illustrator
  • 4 June – George Reid, politician, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 2003-2007
  • 8 June – Gordon Reid, actor (died 2003 in London)
  • 9 June - Eric Fernie, historian
  • 11 June – Jackie Stewart, racing driver
  • July – Wes Magee, poet and children's author
  • 23 July – Donald Macgregor, marathon runner (died 2020)
  • 29 September – Jim Baxter, international footballer (died 2001)
  • 19 October – David Clark, Labour politician
  • 31 October – Trish Godman, Labour politician (died 2019)
  • 18 November – Ian McCulloch, actor
  • Don Cameron, balloonist
  • Dugald Cameron, industrial designer
  • Duncan Macmillan, art historian
  • The Mulgray Twins, Helen and Morna Mulgray, crime novelists

Deaths[]

  • 18 April – Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, patron and promoter of women's interests (born 1857 in London)[11]
  • 20 April – William Mitchell Ramsay, archaeologist and New Testament scholar (born 1851)
  • 13 September – Henry Halcro Johnston, botanist, physician, rugby union international and Deputy Lieutenant for Orkney (born 1856)
  • 21 September – George Washington Browne, architect (born 1853)
  • Robert Bryden, artist and sculptor (born 1865)

The arts[]

  • 18 May – Cosmo Cinema opens in Glasgow as an art film theatre.[12]
  • Erik Chisholm's sonata An Riobhan Dearg is composed.
  • Ian Niall's novel Wigtown Ploughman: Part of His Life is published under the author's real name, John McNeillie.

See also[]

  • Timeline of Scottish history
  • 1939 in Northern Ireland

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Notable Dates in History". The Flag in the Wind. The Scots Independent. Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  2. ^ Brennecke, Jochen (2003). The Hunters and the Hunted. Naval Institute Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 1-59114-091-9.
  3. ^ "Unseen letters show how Glasgow helped JFK on road to White House". BBC News. 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  4. ^ "History of the Citizens Advice service – Citizens Advice". www.citizensadvice.org.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  5. ^ "Jackie Paterson: World Champion 1943". A Sporting Nation. BBC. November 2005. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  6. ^ Duncan, George. "Lesser-Known Facts of World War II". Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  7. ^ Doyle, Peter (2010). ARP and Civil Defence in the Second World War. Oxford: Shire Publications. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7478-0765-0.
  8. ^ a b Flower, Stephen (2011). No Phoney War. Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1-84868-960-2.
  9. ^ English, John (1993). Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. Kendal: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-64-9.
  10. ^ "British naval vessels lost at sea, 1939-45, miscellaneous". The Patriot Files. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  11. ^ Ewan, Elizabeth; Pipes, Rose; Rendall, Jane; Reynolds, Siân (eds.). The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women. Edinburgh University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9781474436281.
  12. ^ Peter, Bruce (1996). 100 Years of Glasgow's Amazing Cinemas. Edinburgh: Polygon. ISBN 0748662103.
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