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1939 in Scotland

{{Short description|none}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2015}}

{{Year in Scotland| 1939 }}

Events from the year 1939 in Scotland.

Incumbents

{{further|Politics of Scotland|Order of precedence in Scotland}}

= Law officers =

= Judiciary =

Events

  • 2 January – all-time highest attendance for a U.K. Association football league game as 118,730 people watch Rangers beat Celtic in an "Old Firm derby" played at Ibrox Park in Glasgow.{{cite web|title=Notable Dates in History|url=http://www.scotsindependent.org/dates1-g.htm|work=The Flag in the Wind|publisher=The Scots Independent|access-date=2014-07-17|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140523225830/http://www.scotsindependent.org/dates1-g.htm|archive-date=23 May 2014}}
  • 1 May – RAF Lossiemouth formally opens.
  • 3 September – World War II:
  • Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Nazi Germany.
  • Clyde-built liner {{SS|Athenia|1922|6}} becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by {{GS|U-30|1936|6}} in the vicinity of Rockall. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed;{{cite book|last=Brennecke|first=Jochen|title=The Hunters and the Hunted|publisher=Naval Institute Press|year=2003|pages=15–16|isbn=1-59114-091-9}} the first survivors are brought in to Greenock. On 7 September, survivors are visited by John F. Kennedy, son of the US Ambassador and future 35th President of the United States.{{cite web|title=Unseen letters show how Glasgow helped JFK on road to White House|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-49557543|work=BBC News|date=2019-09-03|access-date=2019-09-03}}
  • 4 September
  • Civil servants of the Scottish Office begin to occupy its first office in Scotland, St Andrew's House on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
  • Several Citizens Advice Bureaux are founded in the United Kingdom to provide wartime information to the public, including Citizens Advice Edinburgh in Scotland.{{cite web|title=History of the Citizens Advice service – Citizens Advice|url=https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/history-of-the-citizens-advice-service/|website=www.citizensadvice.org.uk|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=18 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118040555/https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/history-of-the-citizens-advice-service/|url-status=dead}}
  • 30 September – Jackie Paterson wins the British flyweight boxing title in an open-air bout in Glasgow.{{cite web|title=Jackie Paterson: World Champion 1943|work=A Sporting Nation|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/asportingnation/article/0032/|publisher=BBC|date=November 2005|access-date=2014-07-18}}
  • 14 October – World War II: HMS Royal Oak sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands with the loss of 833 crew.
  • 16 October – World War II: first enemy aircraft shot down by RAF Fighter Command, a Junkers Ju 88 brought down into the sea by Spitfires following an attack on Rosyth Naval Dockyard.{{cite web|first=George|last=Duncan|title=Lesser-Known Facts of World War II|url=http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/index.html|access-date=2013-05-12}}
  • 17 October – World War II: first bomb lands in the U.K., at Hoy in the Orkney Islands.{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Doyle|title=ARP and Civil Defence in the Second World War|location=Oxford|publisher=Shire Publications|year=2010|isbn=978-0-7478-0765-0|page=9}}
  • 28 October
  • A dust explosion in the colliery at Valleyfield, Fife, kills 35 people.
  • World War II: First enemy aircraft forced down on British soil by RAF Fighter Command, a Heinkel He 111 brought down near Humbie by a Spitfire flown by Archie McKellar following reconnaissance of the Firth of Clyde.
  • 30 October – World War II: British battleship {{HMS|Nelson|28|6}} is unsuccessfully attacked by {{GS|U-56|1938|2}} under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn off Orkney and is hit by three torpedoes, none of which explode; Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound (First Sea Lord) and Admiral Charles Forbes (Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet) are on board.{{cite book|title=No Phoney War|first=Stephen|last=Flower|location=Stroud|publisher=Amberley|year=2011|isbn=978-1-84868-960-2}}
  • 1 December – World War II: {{GS|U-21|1936|6}} torpedoes Finnish vessel Mercator off Peterhead and the Norwegian Arcturus in the Firth of Forth.
  • 2 December – World War II: Swedish cargo ship Rudolf hits a mine and sinks off St Abb's Head.
  • 4 December – World War II: battleship {{HMS|Nelson|28|6}} is badly damaged by a mine (laid by {{GS|U-31|1936|2}}) at the entrance to Loch Ewe.
  • 12 December – escorting destroyer {{HMS|Duchess|H64}} sinks after a collision with battleship {{HMS|Barham|04}} off the Mull of Kintyre in heavy fog with the loss of 124 men.{{cite book|last=English|first=John|title=Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s|year=1993|publisher=World Ship Society|location=Kendal|isbn=0-905617-64-9}}
  • 17 December – Danish cargo ship Bogo sinks off Fife Ness.
  • 21 December – boom defence vessel Bayonet explodes at Leith.{{cite web|title=British naval vessels lost at sea, 1939-45, miscellaneous|url=http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=6439&page=1|work=The Patriot Files|access-date=2014-07-17}}
  • {{HMS|Spartiate}} is established as a Royal Navy shore establishment for Western Approaches Command at St Enoch's Hotel, Glasgow.
  • Strathcarron Reservoir on the River Carron is completed.

Births

Deaths

The arts

  • 2 May – Molly Urquhart's repertory theatre company opens its first production, in Rutherglen.{{cite news|date=7 October 1977|title=Molly Urquhart dies at 71|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19771007&id=2eY9AAAAIBAJ&pg=3124,1247241|newspaper=The Herald|location=Glasgow}}
  • 18 May – Cosmo Cinema opens in Glasgow as an art film theatre.{{cite book|title=100 Years of Glasgow's Amazing Cinemas|first=Bruce|last=Peter|location=Edinburgh|publisher=Polygon|year=1996|isbn=0748662103}}
  • Erik Chisholm's sonata An Riobhan Dearg is composed.
  • Ian Niall's novel Wigtown Ploughman: Part of His Life is published under the author's real name, John McNeillie.

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

{{Years in Scotland}}

Category:Years of the 20th century in Scotland

Scotland

Category:1930s in Scotland