# 1973 in Scotland

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Events from the year 1973 in Scotland.

## Incumbents

* Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Gordon Campbell

### Law officers

* Lord Advocate – Norman Wylie
* Solicitor General for Scotland – William Stewart

### Judiciary

* Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Emslie
* Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Wheatley
* Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Birsay

## Events

* 1 January – Most of the west coast shipping services of David MacBrayne are merged with those of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company as Caledonian MacBrayne.
* 1 March – Dundee East by-election: Labour retains the seat by only 1,141 votes in the face of a strong challenge from the Scottish National Party.
* May – The Co-operative Group: The Scottish Co-operative (Wholesale) Society Ltd merges into the UK-wide Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd following serious financial mismanagement of the SCWS Bank.
* 17 July – Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire, is formally designated as a new town but never developed.
* 25 October – Local Government (Scotland) Act initiates a major reorganisation of local government in Scotland with effect from May 1975).
* 26 October – Firefighters in Glasgow stage a one-day strike following a pay dispute. Soldiers are drafted in to run the fire stations as an essential emergency service.
* 31 October – The Kilbrandon Report is published and recommends the establishment of a directly elected Scottish Assembly, this ultimately came to fruition a quarter of a century later, under the requirements of the Scotland Act 1998, on 1 May 1999.
* 8 November – Glasgow Govan by-election results in Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National Party gaining the seat from Labour with a 26.7% swing. At another Scottish by-election the same day, the Conservatives retain Edinburgh North.
* 14 December – Third (replacement) Bonar Bridge opened.
* 21 December – Armed robbery of British Rail Engineering Limited in Glasgow, in which James Kennedy, a security guard, is killed, earning a posthumous George Cross for his gallantry.
* 31 December – Radio Clyde begins broadcasting, from Clydebank.
* The Church of Scotland introduces the Church Hymnary, third edition, an entirely new compilation.

## Births

* 20 January – Stephen Crabb, Welsh Conservative politician
* 18 March – Patrick Harvie, Green politician
* 10 May – Dario Franchitti, racing driver
* 14 May – Fraser Nelson, political journalist
* 26 May – Julie Wilson Nimmo, actress
* 15 September – Alyn Smith, SNP MEP, MP
* 24 September – Gillian Lindsay, rower
* 5 October – Kay Moran, lawn bowler
* 13 October – Peter Dumbreck, racing driver
* Iain Finlay Macleod, playwright and novelist

## Deaths

* 15 January – Neil M. Gunn, novelist, critic and dramatist (born 1891)
* 22 February – F. Marian McNeill, folklorist (born 1885)
* 23 September – A. S. Neill, progressive educator and author (born 1883)
* 8 October – John Rankin, Labour politician (born 1890)
* 5 December – Robert Watson-Watt, pioneer of radar (born 1892)
* 21 December – James Kennedy, security guard murdered in raid (born 1930)
* 30 December
** D. E. Stevenson (Dorothy Peploe), romantic novelist (born 1892)
** Vagaland (Thomas Alexander Robertson), Shetland dialect poet (born 1909)
* Sir William Gillies, painter (born 1898)

## The arts

* 31 March – John McGrath's play The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil is premiered by 7:84 in Aberdeen.
* 11 May–8 June – The political thriller Scotch on the Rocks, concerning a terrorist group fighting for Scottish independence in the near future, is broadcast by BBC Scotland.
* Canongate Books is established as a publisher in Edinburgh.
* George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus is published.
* Celtic rock group Runrig formed on Skye.