1948 in Scotland

Events from the year 1948 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Arthur Woodburn

Law officers

Judiciary

Events

1 January – A Scottish Region of British Railways begins to operate as a result of nationalisation of rail transport in Great Britain under the Transport Act 1947.
6 February – Last judicial hanging at HM Prison Perth, Stanislaw Miszka for the murder of Catherine McIntyre.
June – During this year's Highland Show, held at Inverness, the Royal title is bestowed on the event by King George VI.
30 June – Glenrothes is designated as a new town under the New Towns Act 1946.
5 July – The National Health Service begins operating as a result of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947.
20 October – 1948 KLM Constellation air disaster: A KLM Lockheed Constellation airliner crashes into power cables on approach to Prestwick Airport, killing all 40 on board.
20 December – Scottish advocate Margaret Kidd becomes the first British woman King's Counsel in Britain.
Timex watch and clock factory in Dundee begins operation.
State Institution for Mental Defectives opens at Carstairs for those with mental disorder following temporary use of the premises as an Army hospital.

Births

8 January – Gillies MacKinnon, film director
11 January – Joe Harper, international footballer
3 February – Maev Alexander, television and stage actress
9 February – David Hayman, actor and director
24 February – Walter Smith, football manager
26 February – Malcolm MacDonald, classical music critic
3 March – Rosemary Byrne, Scottish Socialist Party then Solidarity MSP
7 March - Adam McLean, writer on alchemical texts
25 March – Lynn Faulds Wood, television consumer affairs presenter and health campaigner
29 March – Marjorie Ritchie, animal researcher and animal surgeon, part of team who cloned Dolly the sheep
8 April – Barbara Young, public servant and Labour peer
20 April – Merlin Hay, 24th Earl of Erroll, colonel and politician, Lord High Constable of Scotland
28 April – Scott Fitzgerald, born William McPhail, singer and musical actor
11 May – Fiona Woolf, born Catherine Fiona Swain, lawyer and Lord Mayor of London
21 May – Denis MacShane, born Denis Matyjaszek, journalist and Labour Party MP
8 June – Lorna Heilbron, actress
10 June – Brian Adam, politician and biochemist
15 June – Henry McLeish, footballer, Labour Party MP, MSP and First Minister of Scotland
19 June – David MacLennan, theatre actor and producer
20 June – Alan Longmuir, pop guitarist with the Bay City Rollers
18 July – Jim Watt, lightweight boxer
5 August – Gordon Jackson, Labour Party MSP and lawyer
11 August – Don Boyd, film director, producer, screenwriter and novelist
24 October – Frank McPhee, gangland boss
3 November – Lulu, born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, singer
24 November – Barry Simmons, quiz player
29 November – David Rintoul, actor
8 December – Peter Blake, actor
13 December – Brian Wilson, Labour Party MP
31 December – Sandy Jardine, international footballer and manager
David Annand, sculptor
James Cosmo, actor
James Hunter, historian
John Kay, economist
Edward McGuire, composer
Robert Mone, murderer
John Lowrie Morrison, artist
Janet Paisley, writer
Tom Russell, rock disc jockey

Deaths

31 January – Oscar Slater, acquitted of murder
21 February – Frederic Lamond, classical pianist and composer, pupil of Franz Liszt
9 March - William J. Watson, toponymist
27 March - Douglas Ainslie, poet, translator, critic and diplomat
28 May – Unity Mitford, socialite and fascist
1 June – David Anderson, Lord St Vigeans, Scottish advocate and judge, Chairman of the Scottish Land Court 1918–34
21 June – D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, biologist
17 July – Joseph Westwood, Labour MP
19 November – Charles Jarvis, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient
24 November - O. Douglas, novelist

The arts

Sydney Goodsir Smith's Under the Eildon Tree: a poem in XXIV elegies is published in Edinburgh.