# 1955 in Scotland

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Events from the year 1955 in Scotland.

## Incumbents

* Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – James Stuart

### Law officers

* Lord Advocate – James Latham Clyde until January; then William Rankine Milligan
* Solicitor General for Scotland – William Rankine Milligan until January; then William Grant

### Judiciary

* Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Clyde
* Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Thomson
* Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Gibson

## Events

* 1955 – Dounreay Nuclear Power Development Establishment founded with the primary aim to develop Dounreay as the site for testing previously untried fast breeder reactor technology.
* 24 February – a big freeze across the UK results in many roads being blocked with snow; Caithness is practically cut off. The Royal Air Force works to deliver food and medical supplies to the worst affected areas.
* 21 March – American evangelist Billy Graham begins a seven-week Scottish crusade at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.
* 1 April – the South of Scotland Electricity Board is formed by merger.
* 23 April – the Scottish Cup Final is broadcast live on television for the first time. Clyde F.C. draw 1-1 with Celtic, winning the replay 1-0.
* 19 May – Greenock Coin Hoard found.
* 27 May – United Kingdom general election: In Scotland, as throughout the UK as a whole, the Conservatives have a majority of seats.
* 25 June – the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer STOL transport aircraft, built at Prestwick, first flies.
* 30 June – two Hawker Sea Hawk jet fighters flying from RNAS Lossiemouth independently crash into the North Sea; one pilot is killed.
* 25–27 July – 'Operation Sandcastle': The first load of deteriorating captured Nazi German bombs filled with Tabun (nerve agent) is shipped from Cairnryan on the SS Empire Claire for scuttling in the Atlantic Ocean.
* 30 September – first electricity supply to the isolated railway community at Riccarton Junction.
* 10 November – a major fire in Edinburgh destroys the footwear warehouse of C. W. Carr Aitkman in Jeffrey Street.
* 11 November – a second major fire in Edinburgh largely destroys the C&A fashion store in Princes Street.
* 9 December – Cumbernauld is designated a New town.
* 14 December – RMS Carinthia is launched at John Brown & Company's shipyard on Clydebank for the Cunard Line's Canadian service.
* The collection of the world's first Museum of Childhood is established on Edinburgh's Royal Mile (initially at Lady Stair’s House) by optician Patrick Murray.
* Archaeological excavations on St Ninian's Isle begin.

## Births

* 18 January – Robin Wales, Labour politician, mayor of the London Borough of Newham
* 3 February – Kirsty Wark, television presenter
* 19 March – John Burnside, writer
* 31 March – Angus Young, rock musician
* 23 April – Allan Forsyth, footballer
* 2 May – Willie Miller, footballer
* 5 May – John Stroyan, Anglican bishop
* 14 May – Alasdair Fraser, fiddler
* 4 June – Val McDermid, crime novelist
* 13 June – Alan Hansen, footballer and television presenter
* 1 July – Candia McWilliam, fiction writer
* 8 July – Douglas Flint, banker
* 12 July – Robin Robertson, poet, novelist and editor
* 25 August – John McGeoch guitarist (died 2004 in England)
* 11 October – Sally Magnusson, journalist and broadcast presenter
* 12 October – Aggie MacKenzie, television presenter
* 28 October – Jeff Stewart, actor
* 12 November – Les McKeown, pop-rock singer (died 2021)
* 22 November – Mary Macmaster, harpist
* 2 December – Janice Galloway, writer
* 6 December – Anne Begg, Labour politician
* 23 December – Carol Ann Duffy, poet

## Deaths

* 21 February – Sir Henry Wade, surgeon (born 1876)
* 26 February – Agnes Mure Mackenzie, writer and historian (born 1891)
* 3 March – Lewis Spence, writer and folklorist (born 1874)
* 11 March – Sir Alexander Fleming, bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1881; died in London)
* 22 April – Herbert MacNair, artist (born 1868)
* 11 October – Hector McNeil, politician (born 1907)
* Mary Newbery Sturrock, artist and designer (born 1890)
* Salvador Ysart, glassblower (born 1878 in Barcelona)

## The arts

* Robin Jenkins's novel The Cone Gatherers is published.
* Sandy MacMillan, Thomas Limond and Ross Taylor's Scots language nursery rhyme collection Bairnsangs is published, as by Sandy Thomas Ross.
* Edith Anne Robertson's Scots language poetry collections Voices frae the city o trees; and ither voices frae nearbye and Poems Frae the Suddron O Walter De La Mare Made Ower Intil Scots are published.