1955 in Scotland

← 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1955 in Scotland → 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1955 in: The UK • Wales • Ireland • Elsewhere Scottish football: 1954–55 • 1955–56 1955 in Scottish television

Events from the year 1955 in Scotland.

Incumbents

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

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – James Stuart

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – James Latham Clyde until January; then William Rankine Milligan
• Solicitor General for Scotland – William Rankine Milligan until January; then 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

• 24 February – a big freeze across the UK results in many roads being blocked with snow; Caithness is practically cut off. The Royal Air Force works to deliver food and medical supplies to the worst affected areas.[1]
• 21 March – American evanglist Billy Graham begins a seven-week Scottish crusade at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.[2]
• 1 April – the South of Scotland Electricity Board is formed by merger.
• 23 April – the Scottish Cup Final is broadcast live on television for the first time. Clyde F.C. draw 1-1 with Celtic, winning the replay 1-0.[2]
• 19 May – Greenock Coin Hoard found.
• 27 May – United Kingdom general election: In Scotland, as throughout the UK as a whole, the Conservatives have a majority of seats.
• 25 June – the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer STOL transport aircraft, built at Prestwick, first flies.
• 30 June – two Hawker Sea Hawk jet fighters flying from RNAS Lossiemouth independently crash into the North Sea; one pilot is killed.[3]
• 25–27 July – 'Operation Sandcastle': The first load of deteriorating captured Nazi German bombs filled with Tabun (nerve agent) is shipped from Cairnryan on the SS Empire Claire for scuttling in the Atlantic Ocean.
• 30 September – first electricity supply to the isolated railway community at Riccarton Junction.[4]
• 10 November – a major fire in Edinburgh destroys the footwear warehouse of C. W. Carr Aitkman in Jeffrey Street.[2]
• 11 November – a second major fire in Edinburgh largely destroys the C&A fashion store in Princes Street.[2]
• 9 December – Cumbernauld is designated a New town.[5]
• 14 December – RMS Carinthia is launched at John Brown & Company's shipyard on Clydebank for the Cunard Line's Canadian service.
• The collection of the world's first Museum of Childhood is established on Edinburgh's Royal Mile (initially at Lady Stair’s House) by optician Patrick Murray.
• Archaeological excavations on St Ninian's Isle begin.

Births

• 18 January – Robin Wales, Labour politician, mayor of the London Borough of Newham
• 3 February – Kirsty Wark, television presenter
• 19 March – John Burnside, writer
• 31 March – Angus Young, rock musician
• 23 April – Allan Forsyth, footballer
• 2 May – Willie Miller, footballer
• 5 May – John Stroyan, Anglican bishop
• 14 May – Alasdair Fraser, fiddler
• 4 June – Val McDermid, crime novelist
• 13 June – Alan Hansen, footballer and television presenter
• 1 July – Candia McWilliam, fiction writer
• 8 July – Douglas Flint, banker
• 12 July – Robin Robertson, poet, novelist and editor
• 25 August – John McGeoch guitarist (died 2004 in England)
• 11 October – Sally Magnusson, journalist and broadcast presenter
• 12 October – Aggie MacKenzie, television presenter
• 28 October – Jeff Stewart, actor
• 12 November – Les McKeown, pop-rock singer
• 22 November – Mary Macmaster, harpist
• 2 December – Janice Galloway, writer
• 6 December – Anne Begg, Labour politician
• 23 December – Carol Ann Duffy, poet

Deaths

• 21 February – Sir Henry Wade, surgeon (born 1876)
• 26 February – Agnes Mure Mackenzie, writer and historian (born 1891)
• 3 March – Lewis Spence, writer and folklorist (born 1874)
• 11 March – Sir Alexander Fleming, bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1881; died in London)
• 22 April – Herbert MacNair, artist (born 1868)
• 11 October – Hector McNeil, politician (born 1907)
• Mary Newbery Sturrock, artist and designer (born 1890)
• Salvador Ysart, glassblower (born 1878 in Barcelona)

The arts

• Robin Jenkins's novel The Cone Gatherers is published.
• Sandy MacMillan, Thomas Limond and Ross Taylor's Scots language nursery rhyme collection Bairnsangs is published, as by Sandy Thomas Ross.
• Edith Anne Robertson's Scots language poetry collections Voices frae the city o trees; and ither voices frae nearbye and Poems Frae the Suddron O Walter De La Mare Made Ower Intil Scots are published.

See also

• 1955 in Northern Ireland

References

1. "Britain's big freeze". On This Day. BBC News. 24 February 1955. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
2. "Notable Dates in History". The Flag in the Wind. The Scots Independent. Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
3. "Two Sea Hawks Down". The Times (53261). London. 1 July 1955. p. 10.
4. The Railway Magazine October 1955.
5. "Cumbernauld Town Centre". Retrieved 7 April 2013.