1940 in Scotland

Updated on Sep 26, 2024

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Centuries: 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s

Events from the year 1940 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Monarch — George VI

Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal — John Colville until 10 May; vacant until 14 May; then Ernest Brown

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

1 January — The Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939 prohibits "irregular" marriages ("marriage by declaration" or "handfasting") from this date, ending the practice of "anvil marriage" at Gretna Green.

17 January — World War II: German submarine U-25 sinks the SS Polzella and the neutral Norwegian ship Enid 10 miles north of Shetland.

9 February — World War II: A German aircraft is forced down on North Berwick Law.

3–9 March — RMS Queen Elizabeth makes her maiden voyage on delivery from Clydebank to New York.

16 March — World War II: First civilian casualty of bombing in the U.K., on Orkney.

10 April — World War II: German cruiser Königsberg is sunk at Bergen by British Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua dive bombers flying from RNAS Hatston in Orkney.

30 April — French destroyer Maillé Brézé sunk by accidental explosion off Greenock.

May — Construction of Churchill Barriers on Orkney begins.

9 May — Guy Lloyd wins the East Renfrewshire by-election for the Unionist Party.

29 May — World War II: Requisitioned Clyde steamers Queen-Empress, Duchess of Fife, Oriole (known as Eagle on the Clyde), Marmion and Waverley participate in the Dunkirk evacuation; Waverley is lost.

12 June — World War II: Over 10,000 soldiers of the 51st (Highland) Division under General Victor Fortune surrender to Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.

16 June — World War II: Troopships Empress of Britain, Mauretania, Andes, Queen Mary, Aquitania and Empress of Canada steam in convoy into the River Clyde and anchor off Gourock with the first large contingent of Australian and New Zealand troops.

19 July — World War II: First Luftwaffe daylight raid on Glasgow; little damage is caused on this occasion.

20 July — World War II: A Luftwaffe bomb largely destroys the stand at King's Park F.C.'s Forthbank Park in Stirling leading to the demise of the club.

November — World War II: Construction of No. 1 Military Port at Faslane on the Gare Loch and No. 2 Military Port at Cairnryan begins. Garelochhead Training Camp is also established this year.

Establishment of Kilquhanity School near Castle Douglas by John Aitkenhead.

Births

6 January — John Byrne, playwright and artist

24 February — Denis Law, international footballer

19 April — Dougal Haston, mountaineer (killed 1977 in the Swiss Alps)

14 May — Chay Blyth, yachtsman and adventurer

23 June

Derry Irvine, Baron Irvine of Lairg, Lord Chancellor

Stuart Sutcliffe, pop musician and artist (died 1962 in Hamburg)

28 June — Roderick Wright, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (Catholic) (died 2005 in New Zealand)

29 June — Bill Napier, astronomer and science fiction author

1 July — Craig Brown, footballer and Scotland national football team manager

10 July — Tom Farmer, entrepreneur

4 August — Robin Harper, Green politician

20 August — Gus Macdonald, television journalist and Labour politician

24 November — Donald Macleod, theologian

1 December — Mike Denness, international cricketer

Deaths

11 February — John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, novelist, historian and Unionist politician (born 1875; died in Canada)

18 June — Sir George Andreas Berry, ophthalmologist and Unionist politician (born 1853)

16 December — William Wallace, classical composer and ophthalmologist (born 1860; died in England)

The Arts

Publication of The Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry edited by Hugh MacDiarmid.

References

1940 in Scotland Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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