1914 in Scotland
Events from the year 1914 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers
Judiciary
Events
- 21 February — Militant suffragette Ethel Moorhead, imprisoned in Calton Jail, Edinburgh, for attempted fire-raising, becomes the first in Scotland to suffer force-feeding while on hunger strike; 4 days later she is released on health grounds.[1]
- 14 April — A collision at Burntisland railway station between an express and a shunting goods train following a signalman's error kills two locomotive crew and injures twelve passengers.[2]
- 2 May — Glasgow newspaper The Saturday Post, a predecessor of The Sunday Post, changes its title to The Sporting Post.
- 18 June — A railway bridge collapse at Carrbridge following a torrential thunderstorm kills five people.
- July — Militant suffragette Fanny Parker is arrested while attempting (probably with Ethel Moorhead) to set fire to Burns Cottage, Alloway.[3]
- 3 July — Govanhill Baths in Glasgow inaugurated.[4]
- 4 July — A memorial is unveiled at Hawick to the Battle of Hornshole (1514).[1]
- 10 July — A royal visit to Scotland is interrupted by suffragettes: one attempts to reach the King and Queen's carriage at Dundee;[5] and Rhoda Fleming leaps onto the footboard of the royal car at Perth; police protect her from an angry crowd.[1]
- 30 July — Norwegian aviator Tryggve Gran makes the first crossing of the North Sea by aeroplane, flying from Cruden Bay to Jæren in Norway in the Blériot XI monoplane Ca Flotte.
- August — The British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet is formed in Scapa Flow.
- 4 August — World War I: Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on the German Empire.[6]
- 9 August — World War I: HMS Birmingham (1913) rams and sinks Imperial German Navy submarine U-15 off Fair Isle, the first U-boat claimed by the Royal Navy.[6]
- September — World War I: Revolutionary socialist teacher John Maclean holds his first anti-war rally, on Glasgow Green.
- 5 September — World War I: Scout cruiser HMS Pathfinder (1904) is sunk by German submarine U-21 in the Firth of Forth with loss of all but nine of her crew,[7] the first ship ever to be sunk by a locomotive torpedo fired from a submarine.
- 8 September — Armed merchant cruiser HMS Oceanic runs aground on the Shaalds o' Foula and is lost.
- 14 September — World War I: Scottish soldiers William Henry Johnston, Ross Tollerton and George Wilson win the Victoria Cross in separate actions on the Western Front.
- 26 September — World War I: The 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, newly formed as part of Kitchener's Army, first parades as a unit.[8]
- 15 October — World War I: Protected cruiser HMS Hawke (1891) is torpedoed by German submarine U-9 off Aberdeen, sinking in under 10 minutes with the loss of 524 crew and only 70 survivors.[9]
- 16/17 October - World War I: Scare of submarine attack in Scapa Flow causes the Grand Fleet to disperse while the anchorage is secured.[9]
- 22 October — World War I: Glaswegian Private Henry May, a regular soldier with 1st Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) at La Boutillerie, wins the Victoria Cross for rescuing wounded comrades.[10]
- 3 November — Trawler Ivanhoe, requisitioned as an armed patrol vessel, strikes the Black Rock near Leith while minelaying and sinks.[7]
- 23 November — World War I: German submarine U-18 is intercepted and forced to scuttle while attempting to enter Scapa Flow.
- 25 November — World War I: Sixteen Heart of Midlothian F.C. players enlist en masse - seven will die in action before the war ends.
- St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen, raised to the status of cathedral within the Episcopal Church.
Births
Deaths
- 1 March — Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, soldier and colonial administrator (born 1845 in London)
- 16 March — Sir John Murray, oceanographer, marine biologist and limnologist (born 1841 in Canada)
- 31 March — William Henry Oliphant Smeaton, writer, journalist, editor, historian and educator (born in 1856)
- 26 June — Edward Calvert, domestic architect (born 1847 in Brentford)
- 30 September — Sir Henry Littlejohn, forensic surgeon (born 1826)
- 21 October — James William Cleland, Liberal Party MP for Glasgow Bridgeton (1906–10) (born 1874)
- 19 December — William Bruce, soldier, posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross (born 1890; killed in action near Givenchy)
- 25 December — Donald MacKinnon, Celtic scholar (born in 1839)
The Arts
References