1973 in Scotland

Events from the year 1973 in Scotland.

← 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1973 in Scotland → 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1973 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere Scottish football: 1972–73 • 1973–74 1973 in Scottish television

Incumbents

Further information: Politics of Scotland and Order of precedence in Scotland

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

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Norman Wylie
• Solicitor General for Scotland – William Stewart

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Emslie
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Wheatley
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Birsay

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 – Dundee East by-election: Labour retains the seat by only 1,141 votes in the face of a strong SNP challenge.
• May – The Co-operative Group: The Scottish Co-operative (Wholesale) 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 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. Troops are drafted in to run the fire stations.
• 31 October – the Kilbrandon Report is published and recommends the establishment of a directly elected Scottish Assembly.
• 8 November – Glasgow Govan by-election results in Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National Party (SNP) gaining the seat from Labour on a 26.7% swing. In a second Scottish by election that day, the Conservatives retain Edinburgh North.
• 14 December – third (replacement) 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 (born 1891)
• 22 February – F. Marian McNeill, folklorist (born 1885)
• 23 September – A. S. Neill, progressive educator and author (born 1883)
• 8 October – John Rankin, Labour politician (born 1890)
• 5 December – Robert Watson-Watt, pioneer of radar (born 1892)
• 21 December – James Kennedy, security guard murdered in raid (born 1930)
• 30 December
  • D. E. Stevenson (Dorothy Peploe), romantic novelist (born 1892)
  • Vagaland (Thomas Alexander Robertson), Shetland dialect poet (born 1909)
• Sir William Gillies, painter (born 1898)

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.

See also

• 1973 in Northern Ireland