1916 in Scotland

Events from the year 1916 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Secretary for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Thomas McKinnon Wood until 9 July; Harold Tennant until 5 December; then Robert Munro

Law officers

Lord Advocate – Robert Munro; then James Avon Clyde
Solicitor General for Scotland – Thomas Brash Morison

Judiciary

Events

6 January – sinks off Cape Wrath, having struck a mine laid by ; all but one of the crew survive.
15 February – 27-year-old Edinburgh-born Black Watch private John Docherty is shot at dawn at Mazingarbe abattoir on the Western Front (World War I) for desertion, the first Kitchener's Army volunteer executed.
2-3 April – World War I: Imperial German Navy Zeppelins bomb Leith and Edinburgh, killing 13.
30 May – World War I: Ships of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet put out from Scapa Flow to engage with the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet; the Battle of Jutland is joined next day.
5 June – HMS Hampshire sinks off Orkney, probably having struck a German mine, with the loss of 650 lives – including Lord Kitchener and his staff – and only 13 survivors.
25 July – North of Scotland Special Military Area declared, restricting access by non-residents to everywhere north of the Great Glen.
c.23 August–25 October – Dyce Work Camp for conscientious objectors working in the granite quarries operates.
31 December – Douglas Haig is promoted to Field marshal.
The white-tailed sea eagle last breeds in the UK, on Skye.

Births

11 May – Edward Boyd, screenwriter
20 May – John McIntyre, theologian and Church of Scotland minister
16 June – John Young, actor
10 July – Harry Gourlay, Labour MP from 1959
11 August – Benny Lee, comedy actor and singer
18 October – Anthony Dawson, actor
22 October – Peter Brodie, Church of Scotland minister, Moderator of the General Assembly
28 October – Jessie Kesson, born Jessie Grant McDonald, writer and radio producer
21 November – David Syme Russell, theologian and author
7 November – Ian Niall, born John McNeillie, author
18 December – Douglas Fraser, union leader
Angus McPhee, outsider artist

Deaths

21 January – David Finlay, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross; killed in action in Mesopotamia
6 March – Sir James Key Caird, jute manufacturer and benefactor
6 April – Andrew Ross, Scotland rugby union international and merchant seaman; killed in action in France
3 May – William Hardie, classical scholar, Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh University from 1895
27 May – William Leiper, architect
1 July – James Youll Turnbull, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross; killed in action in France
23 July – William Ramsay, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904
3 October – James Burgess, archaeologist active in India
26 November – Alexander Robertson MacEwen, writer, minister, professor and Moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland

The arts

July–October – during the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front (World War I), Cameron Highlander Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna composes the Gaelic love song An Eala Bhàn in the oral literature tradition.
c. November – the Incorporation of Architects in Scotland is founded in Edinburgh.
Joseph Lee's Ballads of Battle is published.