1944 in Scotland

Events from the year 1944 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Tom Johnston

Law officers

Judiciary

Events

17 February – Kirkcaldy Burghs by-election is held. The Scottish National Party candidate Douglas Young comes close to winning the seat.
6 June – World War II: Normandy landings – Brigadier Lord Lovat leads the 1st Special Service Brigade ashore with his personal piper Bill Millin.
26–30 June – World War II: the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division spearhead Operation Epsom, also known as the First Battle of the Odon, during the Battle of Normandy.
September – Churchill Barriers on Orkney completed, together with the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm.
9 November – The House of the Binns becomes the first estate house given to the National Trust for Scotland.
12 November – World War II: sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz at Tromsø by Lancaster bombers of No. 9 and 617 Squadrons flying from RAF Lossiemouth.
30 November – is launched at John Brown & Company's shipyard at Clydebank by the Princess Elizabeth. The Royal Navy's largest, fastest and last battleship, she was laid down in October 1941 and will be in commission from 1946 to 1960.
December – 97 Italians tunnel out of a prisoner-of-war camp at Doonfoot but are quickly recaptured.

Births

23 January – John McCluskey, boxer
31 January – Robin Murray, psychiatrist
19 February – Ron Mathewson, jazz double bassist and bass guitarist
25 February – Campbell Armstrong, novelist
2 March – Stuart McGugan, actor
11 March – Graham Lyle, singer-songwriter
23 March – Maoilios Caimbeul writer of poetry, prose and children's literature in Scottish Gaelic
19 April – Andrew Welsh, Scottish National Party politician
3 May – Carl Forgione, actor
13 May – Vivien Heilbron, actress
17 May – Jimmy Boyle, sculptor, writer and murderer
5 June – Jim Brogan, footballer
3 July – Paul Young, actor
7 July – George Logan, entertainer
8 August – Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Kelvin, businessman, chairman of the Green Investment Bank
11 August – Ian McDiarmid, actor
17 August – Bobby Murdoch, international footballer
22 August – Tom Leonard, poet
13 September – Leslie Harvey, rock guitarist
21 September – Susan Fleetwood, stage, film and television actress
21 September – Christopher Harvie, historian and Scottish National Party politician
23 September – Eric Bogle, folk singer-songwriter in Australia
30 September – Jimmy Johnstone, international footballer
3 October – Harry Hood, footballer
17 November – Malcolm Bruce, Liberal politician
23 November – Christopher Rush, writer
28 November – James Smillie, actor and singer
12 December – Kenneth Cranham, actor
29 December – Gilbert Adair, novelist, poet, film critic and journalist
Alison Fell, poet and novelist
Shena Mackay, novelist

Deaths

8 February – John Watson, advocate and sheriff, Solicitor General for Scotland 1929–31
29 February - Durward Lely, opera singer and actor
16 March – David Prain, botanist
23 June - J. Storer Clouston, author and historian
5 July – Robert William Hamilton, Liberal politician and MP
6 July - Alexander Lorne Campbell, architect
11 July – Sir Daniel Macaulay Stevenson, shipbroker, Liberal politician and philanthropist
11 August – William Fife, yacht designer
16 August – Walter Robberds, Bishop of Brechin and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
27 September – David Dougal Williams, painter