1908 in Scotland

Events from the year 1908 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Secretary for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – John Sinclair

Law officers

Judiciary

Events

26 January – the 1st Glasgow Scout Group is granted the oldest Scout Group registration known.
25 April – Kincardineshire by-election: Arthur Murray holds the seat for the Liberal Party.
1 May–31 October – Scottish National Exhibition held in Saughton Park, Edinburgh.
9 May – Dundee by-election: Winston Churchill holds the seat for the Liberal Party.
May – Ladies' Scottish Climbing Club formed.
14 July – first ship launched from Yarrow Shipbuilders' new yard at Scotstoun, the first Pará-class destroyer for the Brazilian Navy.
11–12 August: Sailing at the 1908 Summer Olympics: The 12-metre class is contested from Hunters Quay on the Firth of Clyde and won by Thomas C. Glen-Coats' Hera.
Landless men from Barra who have crossed to Vatersay on a land raid in an attempt to claim land are prosecuted by the absentee landowner Emily Gordon, Lady Cathcart, and imprisoned for two months in Edinburgh, although the judge is critical of the landowner.
St Mary's Episcopal Church in Glasgow is raised to the status of St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, within the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Walter Robberds, Bishop of Brechin, becomes Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, an office he will hold until 1934.
Eskdalemuir Observatory opened for geophysical and meteorological recording.
West Highland White Terrier first so named as a breed.
Perth Racecourse, the most northerly in Britain, opened for National Hunt racing.

Births

20 January – Ian Peebles, cricketer
28 January – Jimmy Shand, accordionist and bandleader
2 February – J. K. Annand, poet and founding editor of Lallans magazine
15 April – Denis Devlin, Irish modernist poet and diplomat
22 April – Leonard Schapiro, scholar of Russian politics
27 April – Mary Docherty, Communist activist
23 May – Duncan Black, economist
5 June – Bill Fraser, stage and screen actor
7 June – Thomas Cook, Labour Party Member of Parliament
10 June – Russell Waters, stage and screen actor
12 June – Ronnie Selby Wright, Church of Scotland minister
23 August – Hannah Frank, visual artist
24 August – Ian Garrow, army officer
19 October – Sydney MacEwan, singer and priest
28 October – Angus MacVicar, writer
Jeannie Robertson, folk singer

Deaths

25 January – Sir Thomas McCall Anderson, professor of practice of medicine
30 January – James Bell Pettigrew, naturalist and museum curator
22 March – John William Crombie, Liberal MP for Kincardineshire
24 March – Sir James David Marwick, lawyer, historian and town clerk
13 May – Louisa Stevenson, campaigner for women's rights
7 June – William Lithgow, shipbuilder
25 October – Lewis Campbell, classicist
19 December – Thomas Lomar Gray, engineer, noted for his pioneering work in seismology
Joseph Henderson, artist
John James Stevenson, architect

The arts

Mary and Jane Findlater's novel Crossriggs is published.