1941 in Scotland

Events from the year 1941 in Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Ernest Brown until 8 February; then Tom Johnston

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Thomas Mackay Cooper until June; then James Reid
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – James Reid until June; Sir David King Murray

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Normand
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Aitchison, then Lord Cooper
 * Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Murray, then Lord Gibson

Events

 * 17 January – a German Heinkel He 111 meteorological aircraft is crash-landed on Fair Isle.
 * 5 February – the cargo ship SS Politician runs aground on Eriskay.
 * 12 February – Tom Johnston is appointed Secretary of State for Scotland, a post which he holds until the end of the wartime coalition.
 * 24 February – SS Jonathan Holt is torpedoed in a convoy off Cape Wrath by German submarine U-97 with the loss of 51 of her 57 crew, including English travel writer Robert Byron.
 * 13–14 March – Clydebank Blitz: bombing of Clydebank.
 * 6–7 May – Greenock Blitz: Greenock is intensively bombed.
 * 10 May – Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.
 * 12 May – the Honours of Scotland are secretly buried within Edinburgh Castle as a precaution against invasion.
 * 2 June – 2 adults and 8 children are killed at Buckhaven when a naval mine explodes on the foreshore.
 * 30 August – first official 'Shetland bus' clandestine mission using Norwegian fishing boats between Shetland and German-occupied Norway.
 * 5 November – the Commercial Bar in Fraserburgh receives a direct hit from a German bomb, killing over 30.
 * Loudoun Castle is gutted by fire.
 * The Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh founded

Births

 * 15 January – Colin Matthew, historian and academic (died 1999 in Oxford)
 * 7 March – Stewart McLean, actor and businessman (died 2006)
 * 8 March – Norman Stone, historian (died 2019 in Budapest)
 * 9 March – Andy Lochhead, footballer (died 2022)
 * 14 March – Ishbel MacAskill, Scottish Gaelic singer and teacher (died 2011)
 * 9 April – Hannah Gordon, actress
 * 10 April – John Kurila, footballer (died 2018)
 * 9 May – John Wheatley, Lord Wheatley, lawyer and judge
 * 18 May – Malcolm Longair, astrophysicist
 * 22 May – Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats (UK)
 * 22 May – Alec Monteath, actor and television announcer
 * 19 June – Duncan Forbes, footballer (died 2019 in Norwich)
 * 25 June – Eddie Large, born Edward McGinnis, comedian (died 2020 in Bristol)
 * 30 June – Vincent Logan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Dunkeld (died 2021)
 * 4 August – David R. Morrison, author, editor and painter (died 2012)
 * 19 August – Tony Roper, actor
 * 10 November – David Ashton, actor and writer
 * 22 November – Tom Conti, actor
 * 25 December – Kenneth Calman, medical researcher and academic
 * 31 December – Alex Ferguson, footballer and manager
 * Jenni Calder, née Daiches, literary historian (born in the United States)
 * Frances M Hendry, writer of children's historical fiction
 * Anthony Miller, murderer, second-last criminal to be executed in Scotland (died 1960)
 * Andrew Robertson, actor

Deaths

 * 3 January – William Mustart Lockhart, watercolour painter (born 1855)
 * 6 April – Kenneth Campbell, airman, posthumous Victoria Cross recipient (born 1917; killed in action over Brest, France)
 * 12 April – Charles Murray, Doric dialect poet and civil engineer (born 1864)
 * 19 June – William James Cullen, Lord Cullen, judge (born 1859)
 * 29 June – Sir Alexander MacEwen, solicitor, Provost of Inverness and first Scottish National Party leader (born 1875 in British India)
 * 17 July – Charles Melvin, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1885)
 * 3 December – Neil Harris, footballer and manager (born 1894)

The arts

 * A. J. Cronin's novel The Keys of the Kingdom is published.
 * Compton Mackenzie's comic novel The Monarch of the Glen is published.
 * Sydney Goodsir Smith's first collection Skail Wind - Poems is published in Edinburgh.