1909 in Scotland

Events from the year 1909 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Secretary for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland

Law officers

Lord Advocate – Thomas Shaw; then Alexander Ure
Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Ure; then Arthur Dewar

Judiciary

Events

March – Construction of Rosyth Dockyard for the Royal Navy on the east coast begins.
17 April – 58 police officers and sixty other people are injured as 6,000 fans invade the pitch and brawl with rival fans and the police at the end of the drawn Scottish Cup Final replay between Rangers and Celtic at Hampden Park, Glasgow. The 1909 Scottish Cup and all medals are withheld.
24 May – Dundee United F.C. is formed as Dundee Hibernian, playing its first match on 18 August.
25 May – Oscar Slater found guilty of murder in Glasgow.
28 July – Harold Barnwell makes the first powered flight in Scotland, an 80-yard hop at 4m altitude in a canard biplane built with his brother Frank at Stirling, before crashing.
18 September – Partick Thistle F.C. play their first match at their new Firhill Stadium.
25 December – International footballer James Main suffers a fatal internal injury while playing for Hibernian F.C. against Partick Thistle at Firhill.
A new Highland Land League is formed in Glasgow as a broadly left-wing political party.
The Congested Districts Board buys the island of Vatersay from its absentee landowner and breaks it up into 58 crofts.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland is founded by Thomas Haining Gillespie, an Edinburgh lawyer.
First British bird ringing programme initiated by Arthur Landsborough Thomson at Aberdeen.
The Harris Tweed trademark is registered.
The Scotch whisky brand name Johnnie Walker is introduced.
New pump room built at the spa town of Strathpeffer.

Births

16 January – Ellen King, Olympic swimmer
20 January – Olive Fraser, poet
21 January – James Hoy, Labour Member of Parliament for Leith 1945-1970
6 February – Seán Rafferty, poet
9 February – Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson, historian and paleographer
23 February – Lavinia Derwent, author and broadcaster
24 February – Ethel MacDonald, anarchist and publisher
6 March – Vagaland, Shetland dialect poet
14 March – William Montgomery Watt, historian and Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic studies
19 March – Marjorie Linklater, campaigner for the arts and environment of Orkney
27 April – Muriel C. Bradbrook, literary scholar and authority on Shakespeare
9 May – Robert Garioch, Scots language poet
26 May – Matt Busby, football manager
5 June – Marion Crawford, Scottish educator and governess to Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth II
19 June – William Grant, Lord Grant, Unionist MP, Solicitor General, Lord Advocate, and Lord Justice Clerk
5 September – Archie Jackson, Australian international cricketer
23 November – Nigel Tranter, historical writer
2 December – Helen Douglas Adam, poet, writer and dramatist
Helena Gloag, actress

Deaths

1 January – Archibald Sturrock, steam locomotive engineer
2 March – Simon Somerville Laurie, educator
27 March – John Davidson, poet
26 April – Marcus Dods, theologian
9 August – Jemima Blackburn, painter and illustrator
9 October – Hugh Blackburn, mathematician
29 December – James Main, footballer

The Arts

2 November – The first English-language performance of a play by Anton Chekhov opens, The Seagull, translated and directed by George Calderon, by the Glasgow Repertory Theatre company at the Royalty Theatre, Glasgow.