1941 in Scotland
# 1941 in Scotland

Events from the year 1941 in Scotland.

## Incumbents

* Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Ernest Brown until 8 February; then Tom Johnston

### Law officers

* Lord Advocate – Thomas Mackay Cooper until June; then James Reid
* Solicitor General for Scotland – James Reid until June; Sir David King Murray

### Judiciary

* Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Normand
* Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Aitchison, then Lord Cooper
* Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Murray, then Lord Gibson

## Events

* 17 January – a German Heinkel He 111 meteorological aircraft is crash-landed on Fair Isle.
* 5 February – the cargo ship SS Politician runs aground on Eriskay.
* 12 February – Tom Johnston is appointed Secretary of State for Scotland, a post which he holds until the end of the wartime coalition.
* 24 February – SS Jonathan Holt is torpedoed in a convoy off Cape Wrath by German submarine U-97 with the loss of 51 of her 57 crew, including English travel writer Robert Byron.
* 13–14 March – Clydebank Blitz: bombing of Clydebank.
* 6–7 May – Greenock Blitz: Greenock is intensively bombed.
* 10 May – Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.
* 12 May – the Honours of Scotland are secretly buried within Edinburgh Castle as a precaution against invasion.
* 2 June – 2 adults and 8 children are killed at Buckhaven when a naval mine explodes on the foreshore.
* 30 August – first official 'Shetland bus' clandestine mission using Norwegian fishing boats between Shetland and German-occupied Norway.
* 5 November – the Commercial Bar in Fraserburgh receives a direct hit from a German bomb, killing over 30.
* Loudoun Castle is gutted by fire.
* The Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh founded

## Births

* 15 January – Colin Matthew, historian and academic (died 1999 in Oxford)
* 7 March – Stewart McLean, actor and businessman (died 2006)
* 8 March – Norman Stone, historian (died 2019 in Budapest)
* 9 March – Andy Lochhead, footballer (died 2022)
* 14 March – Ishbel MacAskill, Scottish Gaelic singer and teacher (died 2011)
* 9 April – Hannah Gordon, actress
* 10 April – John Kurila, footballer (died 2018)
* 9 May – John Wheatley, Lord Wheatley, lawyer and judge
* 18 May – Malcolm Longair, astrophysicist
* 22 May – Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats (UK)
* 22 May – Alec Monteath, actor and television announcer
* 19 June – Duncan Forbes, footballer (died 2019 in Norwich)
* 25 June – Eddie Large, born Edward McGinnis, comedian (died 2020 in Bristol)
* 30 June – Vincent Logan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Dunkeld (died 2021)
* 4 August – David R. Morrison, author, editor and painter (died 2012)
* 19 August – Tony Roper, actor
* 10 November – David Ashton, actor and writer
* 22 November – Tom Conti, actor
* 25 December – Kenneth Calman, medical researcher and academic
* 31 December – Alex Ferguson, footballer and manager
* Jenni Calder, née Daiches, literary historian (born in the United States)
* Frances M Hendry, writer of children's historical fiction
* Anthony Miller, murderer, second-last criminal to be executed in Scotland (died 1960)
* Andrew Robertson, actor

## Deaths

* 3 January – William Mustart Lockhart, watercolour painter (born 1855)
* 6 April – Kenneth Campbell, airman, posthumous Victoria Cross recipient (born 1917; killed in action over Brest, France)
* 12 April – Charles Murray, Doric dialect poet and civil engineer (born 1864)
* 19 June – William James Cullen, Lord Cullen, judge (born 1859)
* 29 June – Sir Alexander MacEwen, solicitor, Provost of Inverness and first Scottish National Party leader (born 1875 in British India)
* 17 July – Charles Melvin, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1885)
* 3 December – Neil Harris, footballer and manager (born 1894)

## The arts

* A. J. Cronin's novel The Keys of the Kingdom is published.
* Compton Mackenzie's comic novel The Monarch of the Glen is published.
* Sydney Goodsir Smith's first collection Skail Wind - Poems is published in Edinburgh.
