1960 in Scotland

Events from the year 1960 in Scotland.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – John Maclay

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – William Rankine Milligan; then William Grant
• Solicitor General for Scotland – William Grant until May; then David Colville Anderson

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Clyde
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Thomson
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Gibson

Events

• 16 January – the last regular ship on the Cork–Glasgow crossing runs, ending a 103-year-old service.
• 2 March – Elvis Presley stops off at Glasgow Prestwick Airport for a few hours on his journey home to the United States after doing military service in West Germany. This is notable for being the only time he ever visits the UK.^[1] His ancestor, blacksmith Andrew Presley, migrated from Lonmay to North Carolina in 1745.^[2]
• 14 March – Jock Stein is appointed manager of Dunfermline Athletic F.C.
• 28 March – Cheapside Street Whisky Bond Fire in Glasgow: 19 firemen killed in Britain's worst peacetime fire services disaster.^[3]
• 18 May – 1960 European Cup Final at Hampden Park, Glasgow: Real Madrid C.F. defeat Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3,^[4] Rangers F.C. having been knocked out by Frankfurt in the semi-finals.
• 21 June – the Royal Highland Show opens for the first time at its permanent site, the Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston in the Lowlands.
• August – murder of the Little Ross lighthouse keeper.^[5]
• 7 September – North Ford Causeway opened, connecting North Uist and Benbecula via Grimsay (5 miles (8 km)), completing an all-weather road link between North and South Uist.^[6]
• October – Queen's Bridge in Perth opened.
• 30 October – Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplantation in the UK, at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
• 5 November – Glasgow area suburban train services electrified.
• 24 December – The rebuilt Barrowland Ballroom reopens in Glasgow.
• Seafield Colliery at Kirkcaldy opens.^[7]
• Little Houses Improvement Scheme launched by the National Trust for Scotland to promote conservation of vernacular architecture.^[8]

Births

• 7 February – Steve Bronski, born Steve Forrest, synth-pop keyboardist (died 2021)
• 11 February – Momus, born Nicholas Currie, songwriter
• February – Lesley Riddoch, political journalist and broadcaster
• 10 March – Anne MacKenzie, broadcast journalist
• 23 March – Nicol Stephen, Liberal Democrat MSP, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats (2005-2008) and Deputy First Minister of Scotland (2005-2007)
• 3 April – Shona McIsaac, Labour politician^[9]
• 28 April – Ian Rankin, crime novelist
• 5 May – David Nish, businessman
• 19 June – Paul Coia, television presenter
• 24 June – Elish Angiolini, née McPhilomy, Solicitor General for Scotland (2001-2006) and Lord Advocate (2006-2011)
• 30 June – Jack McConnell, First Minister of Scotland (2001-2007)
• 20 August – Annabelle Ewing, Nationalist politician and lawyer
• 10 September – Margaret Ferrier, Scottish National Party politician^[10]
• 26 September – Stephen Kerr, Conservative politician
• 6 October – Richard Jobson, rock singer-songwriter (Skids), filmmaker and television presenter
• 12 December – Benny Higgins, banker
• 22 December – Elvis McGonagall, born Richard Smith, slam poet
• Katrina Porteous, poet

Deaths

• 11 January – Isabel Emslie Hutton, nurse in Serbia during World War I and psychiatrist (born 1887)
• 15 August – Rachel Annand Taylor, poet (born 1876)
• 17 August – Calum Maclean, folklorist (born 1915)
• 24 August – Charlotte Ainslie, educationalist and headmistress (born 1863)^[11]
• 21 October – Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, "Red Duchess", Scottish politician and humanitarian (born 1874)
• 13 December – Dora Marsden, radical feminist and modernist literary editor (born 1882)

The arts

• 20–28 May – The Beatles, as the Silver Beetles (uncredited), play their first ever tour, as a backing group for Johnny Gentle on a tour of Scotland opening at Alloa Town Hall and ending at Peterhead.^[12] The lineup comprises John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Edinburgh-born Stuart Sutcliffe and Tommy Moore.
• 10 August – The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art opens at Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.^[13]
• August – Sydney Goodsir Smith's verse play The Wallace ("a Triumph in Five Acts") has its stage première at the Edinburgh Festival in the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland.
• Autumn – release of Andy Stewart's recordings of "A Scottish Soldier" and "Donald Where's Your Troosers?"^[14]
• Donald Sutherland acts at the Perth Repertory Theatre,^[15] working alongside Michael Sheard.

See also

• 1960 in Northern Ireland

References

1. "1960 - Elvis Presley stops off at Prestwick". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
2. "Elvis roots 'lead to Scotland'". BBC News. 23 March 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
3. "Chronology of Scottish History". A Timeline of Scottish History. Rampant Scotland. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
4. "The greatest matches of all time". The Daily Telegraph. London. 4 July 2007. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
5. Collin, David R. (2010). "The Ross Island Lighthouse Murder". Kirkcudbright Community Website. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
6. "North Ford Causeway". Stornoway: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. 29 August 2013. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
7. "100 Weeks of Scotland: Coal industry". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
8. "A History of the Little Houses Improvement Scheme". National Trust for Scotland. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
9. Dale, Iain; Smith, Jacqui (14 November 2019). The Honourable Ladies: Volume II: Profiles of Women MPs 1997–2019. Biteback Publishing. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-78590-447-9.
10. MyParliament – Biography for Margaret Ferrier
11. Ewan, Elizabeth; Pipes, Rose; Rendall, Jane; Reynolds, Siân, eds. (2018). The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women. Edinburgh University Press. p. 8. ISBN 9781474436281.
12. "Tours & Performances". The Official Johnny Gentle Website. 2003. Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
13. "Scotland's New Gallery: Modern Painting and Sculpture". The Times. No. 54842. London. 5 August 1960. p. 11.
14. "A Scottish Soldier". Andy Stewart: An Illustrated Record. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
15. Strachan, Graeme (20 June 2024). "How Donald Sutherland became a Hollywood movie icon after Perth Rep snub". The Courier. Dundee. Archived from the original on 13 August 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2024.