1973 in Scotland

Events from the year 1973 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Gordon Campbell

Law officers

Judiciary

Events

1 January – Most of the west coast shipping services of David MacBrayne are merged with those of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company as Caledonian MacBrayne.
1 March – 1973 [Dundee East by-election|Dundee East by-election]: Labour retains the seat by only 1,141 votes in the face of a strong challenge from the Scottish National Party.
May – The Co-operative Group: The Scottish Co-operative Society Ltd merges into the UK-wide Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd following serious financial mismanagement of the SCWS Bank.
17 July – Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire, is formally designated as a New towns in [the United Kingdom|new town] but never developed.
25 October – Local Government (Scotland) Act initiates a major reorganisation of local government in Scotland with effect from May 1975).
26 October – Firefighters in Glasgow stage a one-day strike following a pay dispute. Soldiers are drafted in to run the fire stations as an essential emergency service.
31 October – The Kilbrandon Report is published and recommends the establishment of a directly elected Scottish Assembly, this ultimately came to fruition a quarter of a century later, under the requirements of the Scotland Act 1998, on 1 May 1999.
8 November – 1973 [Glasgow Govan by-election|Glasgow Govan by-election] results in Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National Party gaining the seat from Labour with a 26.7% swing. At another Scottish by-election the same day, the Conservatives retain Edinburgh North by-election|Edinburgh North].
14 December – Third Bonar Bridge opened.
21 December – Armed robbery of British Rail Engineering Limited in Glasgow, in which James Kennedy, a security guard, is killed, earning a posthumous George Cross for his gallantry.
31 December – Radio Clyde begins broadcasting, from Clydebank.
The Church of Scotland introduces the Church Hymnary, third edition, an entirely new compilation.

Births

20 January – Stephen Crabb, Welsh Conservative politician
18 March – Patrick Harvie, Green politician
10 May – Dario Franchitti, racing driver
14 May – Fraser Nelson, political journalist
26 May – Julie Wilson Nimmo, actress
15 September – Alyn Smith, SNP MEP, MP
24 September – Gillian Lindsay, rower
5 October – Kay Moran, lawn bowler
13 October – Peter Dumbreck, racing driver
Iain Finlay Macleod, playwright and novelist

Deaths

15 January – Neil M. Gunn, novelist, critic and dramatist
22 February – F. Marian McNeill, folklorist
23 September – A. S. Neill, progressive educator and author
8 October – John Rankin, Labour politician
5 December – Robert Watson-Watt, pioneer of radar
21 December – James Kennedy, security guard murdered in raid
30 December
* D. E. Stevenson, romantic novelist
* Vagaland, Shetland dialect poet
Sir William Gillies, painter

The arts

31 March – John McGrath's play The Cheviot, the Stag, and [the Black Black Oil] is premiered by 7:84 in Aberdeen.
11 May–8 June – The political thriller Scotch on the Rocks, concerning a terrorist group fighting for Scottish independence in the near future, is broadcast by BBC Scotland.
Canongate Books is established as a publisher in Edinburgh.
George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus is published.
Celtic rock group Runrig formed on Skye.