1955 in Scotland

Events from the year 1955 in Scotland.

Incumbents

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

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – James Latham Clyde until January; then William Rankine Milligan
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – William Rankine Milligan until January; then William Grant

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

 * 1955 – Dounreay Nuclear Power Development Establishment founded with the primary aim to develop Dounreay as the site for testing previously untried fast breeder reactor technology.
 * 24 February – a big freeze across the UK results in many roads being blocked with snow; Caithness is practically cut off. The Royal Air Force works to deliver food and medical supplies to the worst affected areas.
 * 21 March – American evangelist Billy Graham begins a seven-week Scottish crusade at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.
 * 1 April – the South of Scotland Electricity Board is formed by merger.
 * 23 April – the Scottish Cup Final is broadcast live on television for the first time. Clyde F.C. draw 1-1 with Celtic, winning the replay 1-0.
 * 19 May – Greenock Coin Hoard found.
 * 27 May – United Kingdom general election: In Scotland, as throughout the UK as a whole, the Conservatives have a majority of seats.
 * 25 June – the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer STOL transport aircraft, built at Prestwick, first flies.
 * 30 June – two Hawker Sea Hawk jet fighters flying from RNAS Lossiemouth independently crash into the North Sea; one pilot is killed.
 * 25–27 July – 'Operation Sandcastle': The first load of deteriorating captured Nazi German bombs filled with Tabun (nerve agent) is shipped from Cairnryan on the SS Empire Claire for scuttling in the Atlantic Ocean.
 * 30 September – first electricity supply to the isolated railway community at Riccarton Junction.
 * 10 November – a major fire in Edinburgh destroys the footwear warehouse of C. W. Carr Aitkman in Jeffrey Street.
 * 11 November – a second major fire in Edinburgh largely destroys the C&A fashion store in Princes Street.
 * 9 December – Cumbernauld is designated a New town.
 * 14 December – RMS Carinthia is launched at John Brown & Company's shipyard on Clydebank for the Cunard Line's Canadian service.
 * The collection of the world's first Museum of Childhood is established on Edinburgh's Royal Mile (initially at Lady Stair’s House) by optician Patrick Murray.
 * Archaeological excavations on St Ninian's Isle begin.

Births

 * 18 January – Robin Wales, Labour politician, mayor of the London Borough of Newham
 * 3 February – Kirsty Wark, television presenter
 * 19 March – John Burnside, writer
 * 31 March – Angus Young, rock musician
 * 23 April – Allan Forsyth, footballer
 * 2 May – Willie Miller, footballer
 * 5 May – John Stroyan, Anglican bishop
 * 14 May – Alasdair Fraser, fiddler
 * 4 June – Val McDermid, crime novelist
 * 13 June – Alan Hansen, footballer and television presenter
 * 1 July – Candia McWilliam, fiction writer
 * 8 July – Douglas Flint, banker
 * 12 July – Robin Robertson, poet, novelist and editor
 * 25 August – John McGeoch guitarist (died 2004 in England)
 * 11 October – Sally Magnusson, journalist and broadcast presenter
 * 12 October – Aggie MacKenzie, television presenter
 * 28 October – Jeff Stewart, actor
 * 12 November – Les McKeown, pop-rock singer (died 2021)
 * 22 November – Mary Macmaster, harpist
 * 2 December – Janice Galloway, writer
 * 6 December – Anne Begg, Labour politician
 * 23 December – Carol Ann Duffy, poet

Deaths

 * 21 February – Sir Henry Wade, surgeon (born 1876)
 * 26 February – Agnes Mure Mackenzie, writer and historian (born 1891)
 * 3 March – Lewis Spence, writer and folklorist (born 1874)
 * 11 March – Sir Alexander Fleming, bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1881; died in London)
 * 22 April – Herbert MacNair, artist (born 1868)
 * 11 October – Hector McNeil, politician (born 1907)
 * Mary Newbery Sturrock, artist and designer (born 1890)
 * Salvador Ysart, glassblower (born 1878 in Barcelona)

The arts

 * Robin Jenkins's novel The Cone Gatherers is published.
 * Sandy MacMillan, Thomas Limond and Ross Taylor's Scots language nursery rhyme collection Bairnsangs is published, as by Sandy Thomas Ross.
 * Edith Anne Robertson's Scots language poetry collections Voices frae the city o trees; and ither voices frae nearbye and Poems Frae the Suddron O Walter De La Mare Made Ower Intil Scots are published.