# 1953 in Scotland

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Events from the year 1953 in Scotland.

## Incumbents

* Secretary of State for Scotland 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 and Lord Justice General – Lord Cooper
* Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Thomson
* Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Gibson

## Events

* 30 January – The cargo vessel Clan MacQuarrie runs aground near Borve, Lewis in a storm; all 66 crew are rescued by breeches buoy the following morning.
* 31 January – The car ferry MV Princess Victoria, sailing from Stranraer to Larne in Northern Ireland, sinks in the Irish Sea in a storm killing 133 people on board. Fleetwood trawler Michael Griffiths sinks seven miles south of Barra Head with the loss of 13 crew.
* 9 February – Fraserburgh life-boat John and Charles Kennedy capsizes on service: six crew killed.
* 5 March – PS Maid of the Loch, the last full-size paddle steamer built in the UK, is launched on the River Clyde at A. & J. Inglis's Pointhouse Shipyard. On 25 May, she enters excursion service on Loch Lomond.
* c. March – New Bridge Street Bridge across Peterhead harbour completed, the last Scherzer rolling lift bridge erected by Sir William Arrol & Co. of Glasgow.
* 16 April – The Queen launches the Royal Yacht Britannia at John Brown & Company shipbuilders at Clydebank.
* 20 May – Celtic F.C. beat Hibernian 2-0 in the final of the Coronation Cup (football) at Hampden Park.
* 20 June – Most of the population of the island of Soay, Skye, moves to the Isle of Mull.
* 24 June – First state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Scotland since her accession; the Honours of Scotland are carried before the monarch for the first time since 1822 and presented to her at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh.
* 22 July – Great Bernera is connected to Lewis by Scotland's first prestressed concrete girder bridge.
* 8 August – The northbound Royal Scot train derails near Abington descending from Beattock Summit due to buckling of track caused by high temperature; 37 are injured.
* 27 October – Arbroath life-boat Robert Lindsay capsizes on service: six crew killed.
* Scottish law case of MacCormick v Lord Advocate decides that the right of Elizabeth II to so style herself in Scotland is a matter of royal prerogative.
* IBM establishes a manufacturing facility in Greenock.

## Births

* 1 January – Maureen Beattie, Irish-born actress
* 6 January – Malcolm Young, rock guitarist (died 2017 in Australia)
* 11 January – John Sessions, born John Gibb Marshall, actor and comedian (died 2020)
* 20 January – John Robertson, international footballer
* 27 February – Gavin Esler, television journalist
* 6 April – Patrick Doyle, film composer
* 6 May
** Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1997-2007
** Graeme Souness, international footballer and manager
* 19 May – Patrick Hodge, lawyer, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
* 21 May – Jim Devine, Labour politician
* 22 May – Andy Nisbet, mountaineer (died 2019)
* 23 May – Ronald Frame, fiction writer
* 7 June
** Colin Boyd, Baron Boyd of Duncansby, lawyer and judge
** Dougie Donnelly, television presenter
* 23 June – John Stahl, actor (died 2022)
* 24 August – Sam Torrance, golfer
* 31 August – Jimmy McKenna, actor
* 8 September – John McGlynn, actor
* 10 September – John Thurso, born John Sinclair, businessman and Liberal Democrat politician
* 28 September – Jim Diamond, pop singer-songwriter (died 2015)
* 21 October – Eric Faulkner, pop musician
* 4 November – Derek Johnstone, international footballer
* 12 November – Calum MacDonald, Celtic rock songwriter and percussionist
* 22 December – Gregor Fisher, actor and comedian
* Steven Campbell, figurative painter (died 2007)
* Ian Read, businessman

## Deaths

* 19 March – Thomas Hunter, Unionist Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Perth (born 1872)
* 1 June – Alex James, international footballer (born 1901)
* 23 July – Sir Thomas Jaffrey, actuary (born 1861)
* 30 September – Lewis Fry Richardson, mathematical physicist (born 1881 in England)

## The arts

* April – Comedy film Laxdale Hall is released.
* Lewis Spence's Collected Poems are published in Edinburgh.