1953 in Scotland

Events from the year 1953 in Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – James Stuart

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – James Latham Clyde
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – William Rankine Milligan

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 30 January – The cargo vessel Clan MacQuarrie runs aground near Borve, Lewis in a storm; all 66 crew are rescued by breeches buoy the following morning.
 * 31 January – The car ferry MV Princess Victoria, sailing from Stranraer to Larne in Northern Ireland, sinks in the Irish Sea in a storm killing 133 people on board. Fleetwood trawler Michael Griffiths sinks seven miles south of Barra Head with the loss of 13 crew.
 * 9 February – Fraserburgh life-boat John and Charles Kennedy capsizes on service: six crew killed.
 * 5 March – PS Maid of the Loch, the last full-size paddle steamer built in the UK, is launched on the River Clyde at A. & J. Inglis's Pointhouse Shipyard. On 25 May, she enters excursion service on Loch Lomond.
 * c. March – New Bridge Street Bridge across Peterhead harbour completed, the last Scherzer rolling lift bridge erected by Sir William Arrol & Co. of Glasgow.
 * 16 April – The Queen launches the Royal Yacht Britannia at John Brown & Company shipbuilders at Clydebank.
 * 20 May – Celtic F.C. beat Hibernian 2-0 in the final of the Coronation Cup (football) at Hampden Park.
 * 20 June – Most of the population of the island of Soay, Skye, moves to the Isle of Mull.
 * 24 June – First state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Scotland since her accession; the Honours of Scotland are carried before the monarch for the first time since 1822 and presented to her at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh.
 * 22 July – Great Bernera is connected to Lewis by Scotland's first prestressed concrete girder bridge.
 * 8 August – The northbound Royal Scot train derails near Abington descending from Beattock Summit due to buckling of track caused by high temperature; 37 are injured.
 * 27 October – Arbroath life-boat Robert Lindsay capsizes on service: six crew killed.
 * Scottish law case of MacCormick v Lord Advocate decides that the right of Elizabeth II to so style herself in Scotland is a matter of royal prerogative.
 * IBM establishes a manufacturing facility in Greenock.

Births

 * 1 January – Maureen Beattie, Irish-born actress
 * 6 January – Malcolm Young, rock guitarist (died 2017 in Australia)
 * 11 January – John Sessions, born John Gibb Marshall, actor and comedian (died 2020)
 * 20 January – John Robertson, international footballer
 * 27 February – Gavin Esler, television journalist
 * 6 April – Patrick Doyle, film composer
 * 6 May
 * Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1997-2007
 * Graeme Souness, international footballer and manager
 * 19 May – Patrick Hodge, lawyer, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
 * 21 May – Jim Devine, Labour politician
 * 22 May – Andy Nisbet, mountaineer (died 2019)
 * 23 May – Ronald Frame, fiction writer
 * 7 June
 * Colin Boyd, Baron Boyd of Duncansby, lawyer and judge
 * Dougie Donnelly, television presenter
 * 23 June – John Stahl, actor (died 2022)
 * 24 August – Sam Torrance, golfer
 * 31 August – Jimmy McKenna, actor
 * 8 September – John McGlynn, actor
 * 10 September – John Thurso, born John Sinclair, businessman and Liberal Democrat politician
 * 28 September – Jim Diamond, pop singer-songwriter (died 2015)
 * 21 October – Eric Faulkner, pop musician
 * 4 November – Derek Johnstone, international footballer
 * 12 November – Calum MacDonald, Celtic rock songwriter and percussionist
 * 22 December – Gregor Fisher, actor and comedian
 * Steven Campbell, figurative painter (died 2007)
 * Ian Read, businessman

Deaths

 * 19 March – Thomas Hunter, Unionist Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Perth (born 1872)
 * 1 June – Alex James, international footballer (born 1901)
 * 23 July – Sir Thomas Jaffrey, actuary (born 1861)
 * 30 September – Lewis Fry Richardson, mathematical physicist (born 1881 in England)

The arts

 * April – Comedy film Laxdale Hall is released.
 * Lewis Spence's Collected Poems are published in Edinburgh.