1881 in Scotland

Events from the year 1881 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Law officers

Lord Advocate – John McLaren until August; then John Blair Balfour
Solicitor General for Scotland – John Blair Balfour; then Alexander Asher

Judiciary

Events

1 March – the Cunard Line's, the first steel transatlantic liner, is launched at J. & G. Thomson's shipyard at Clydebank.
1 July – formation, under the Childers Reforms of the British Army, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), Gordon Highlanders, Highland Light Infantry and Seaforth Highlanders.
20/21 July – 58 men, the crews of ten fishing boats from Yell, Shetland, are drowned in a sudden storm.
25 August – Edinburgh Royal Review of Volunteers : Large numbers of Volunteer Forces from all over Scotland parade before Queen Victoria in Holyrood Park on a day of prolonged heavy rainfall.
14 October – the Eyemouth disaster : a severe storm strikes the Berwickshire coast; 189 fishermen die.
21 December – the Aberdeen Line's SS Aberdeen, the first oceangoing ship successfully powered by a triple expansion steam engine, designed by Alexander Carnegie Kirk, is launched at Robert Napier and Sons' yard at Govan.
The remains of Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford, are stolen from the family crypt on the Dunecht estate.
Memorial cairn erected at the site of the Battle of Culloden.
Bruichladdich distillery established on the Rinns of Islay.
Clydebank Co-operative Society formed.
Inverness Museum and Art Gallery originally opened.
Fettesian-Lorettonian Club established as a joint sporting club of the two named Edinburgh public schools, primarily for the playing of rugby union.

Births

29 March – Charles Jarvis, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient
6 August – Alexander Fleming, biologist, pharmacologist and botanist
2 November – Tom Johnston, socialist politician
6 November – Alfred David McAlpine, civil engineering contractor
1 December – Alastair Denniston, cryptanalyst
25 December – Willie Gallacher, trade unionist and communist MP

Deaths

22 August – John Hill Burton, advocate, historian and economist
30 October – William Brodie, sculptor
31 October – Alexander Macdonald, miner, trade unionist and Lib–Lab MP