Events from the year 1954 in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Incumbents

Secretary of State for Scotland The secretary of state for Scotland (; ), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Scotland Office. The incum ...

and Keeper of the Great Seal – James Stuart

Law officers

* Lord Advocate – James Latham Clyde * Solicitor General for Scotland – William Rankine Milligan

Judiciary

Lord President of the Court of Session The Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General () is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice, the Court of Session, and the High Court of Justiciary. ...

and Lord Justice General – Lord Cooper until 23 December; then Lord Clyde * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Thomson * Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Gibson

Events

* 28 January – John Thomas Wheatley appointed as a Senator of the College of Justice. * 12 February – United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority founded; the body in this same year will decide on Dounreay as a 'safe' site for its fast breeder reactor tests. * 17 February – RMS ''Saxonia'' is launched at

John Brown & Company John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''. At its heig ...

's shipyard on Clydebank for the Cunard Line's Canadian service. * March – '' Scottish Journal of Political Economy'' first published. * 16 March – Major fire damages Skerryvore lighthouse. * 27 April – Clyde F.C. beat Celtic 1 – 0 in the replayed final of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,12 May – Work on construction of Seafield Colliery at

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...

begins. * 4 July – Fourteen years of rationing in the UK during and following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

comes to an end, when meat officially comes off ration. * July – Work on construction of Ravenscraig steelworks is authorised. * 19 July – United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority established by the Atomic Energy Act "to produce, use and dispose of atomic energy and carry out research into any matters therewith". * 3 September – The National Trust for Scotland acquires Fair Isle from George Waterston. * 23 October – Heart of Midlothian F.C. beats

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

4–2 to win the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

. * 23 November – opening of Walsh trial, to determine whether Douglas Walsh of Dumbarton, a Jehovah's Witness pioneer, has the same right as an ordained religious minister in Scotland to be exempted from national service. * 25 December – 1954 Prestwick air disaster: BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser G-ALSA crashes on landing at Prestwick Airport from London in poor visibility, killing 28. * Asymmetric footbridge over Gala Water in Galashiels opened. *

Osprey The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It ...

recolonise Scotland.

Births

* 5 January – Myra Nimmo, long jumper *

27 January Events Pre-1600 * 98 – Trajan succeeds his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor. * 945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to become monks by Constantine VII, who becomes sole emperor of the ...

- Iain McColl, actor (died 2013) * 15 February – John McAslan, architect * 16 February – Iain Banks, novelist (died

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

) * 22 February - Ian Stark, equestrian *

8 March Events Pre-1600 * 1010 – Ferdowsi completes his epic poem '' Shahnameh''. * 1126 – Following the death of his mother, queen Urraca of León, Alfonso VII is proclaimed king of León. * 1262 – Battle of Hausbergen between ...

– David Wilkie, swimmer (born in Colombo; died

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

) * 9 March – Jim Stewart, footballer *

14 March Events Pre-1600 *1074 – Battle of Mogyoród: Dukes Géza I of Hungary, Géza and Ladislaus I of Hungary, Ladislaus defeat their cousin Solomon, King of Hungary, forcing him to flee to Hungary's western borderland. *1590 – Battle ...

– David Taylor, football administrator, joint General Secretary of

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

* 23 March – Mary Fee, Labour Party politician * 9 April –

Iain Duncan Smith Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who was Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Le ...

, Conservative Party leader, MP and government minister * 28 April – Tom McCabe, Labour Party politician, MSP (1999–2011) and government minister (died

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

) * 5 May – Brian Souter, businessman and founder of Stagecoach Group * 11 May - Judith Weir, composer * 28 June – A. A. Gill, newspaper critic (died 2016 in London) * 25 July - Sheena McDonal, journalist and broadcaster * 2 August – Ken MacLeod, science fiction writer * 5 August – Allan Wilson, Labour Party politician, MSP (1999–2007) *

16 August Events Pre-1600 *1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power in China and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who died the previous day, had no heirs. * 942 – Start of the four-day Battle of al-Mada'in, between the Hamdani ...

– George Galloway, politician, former MP and founder of the

Respect Party The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...

* 26 August – David Martin, Labour Party politician, Member of the European Parliament for Scotland * 11 September –

Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician best known for being the chief vocalist, Flute, flautist, and acoustic guitarist of the British rock band Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist who also p ...

, footballer (died

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

) * 28 September – Mike McCartney, footballer * 16 October – Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean, Conservative

* 19 October –

Ken Stott Kenneth Campbell Stott (born 19 October 1954) is a Scottish stage, television and film actor who won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1995 in the play ''Broken Glass (play), Broken Glass'' at Royal National Thea ...

, actor * 16 November – Donald Runnicles, orchestral conductor * 25 December – Annie Lennox, singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist * 27 December – Joanna Strathdee,

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

politician (died

) * 31 December – Alex Salmond, Scottish National Party First Minister of Scotland (2007–14) (died 2024) *

George McGavin George C. McGavin (born 1954, in Glasgow, Scotland) is a British entomology, entomologist, author, academic, television presenter and explorer. Background McGavin attended Daniel Stewart's College, a private school in Edinburgh, then studie ...

, entomologist * Gordon Murray, architect

Deaths

* 11 February – Alexander Anderson, Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament 1947–54 (born 1888) * 18 April – Helen Crawfurd, suffragette and communist activist (born

1877 Events January * January 1 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India by the Royal Titles Act 1876, introduced by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . * January 8 – Great Sioux War of 1876: Batt ...

) * 6 May – B. C. Forbes, financial journalist and author who founded '' Forbes Magazine'' in the United States (born

1880 Events January *January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." gr ...

) * 18 July – Thomas S. Tait, architect (born 1882) * 12 November – Alex Smith, international footballer (born

1876 Events January * January 1 ** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin. ** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol. *January 27 – The Northampton Bank robbery occurs in Massachusetts. February * Febr ...

) * 22 November – Jimmy Gordon, footballer (born 1888)

The arts

* George Mackay Brown's first book of poetry, ''The Storm'', is published. * Sorley MacLean's

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

poetry '' Hallaig'' is published in ''Gairm''.8. * Roddy McMillan's play ''All in Good Faith'' is presented at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. * American photographer Paul Strand works in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...

. * Alexander Trocchi's novel '' Young Adam'' is published.

References

{{Years in Scotland

Years of the 20th century in Scotland 1950s in Scotland