1968 in Scotland

Events from the year 1968 in Scotland.

← 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1968 in Scotland → 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1968 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere Scottish football: 1967–68 • 1968–69 1968 in Scottish television

Incumbents

Further information: Politics of Scotland and Order of precedence in Scotland

• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Willie Ross

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Henry Wilson
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Ewan Stewart

Judiciary

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

Events

• 15 January – 1968 Scotland storm ("Great Glasgow storm") leaves 20 dead across central Scotland including 9 in Glasgow.^[1]
• February – Upper Clyde Shipbuilders formed with 48.4% government holding by amalgamation of Fairfields, Govan; Alexander Stephen & Sons, Linthouse; John Brown & Company, Clydebank; Charles Connell and Company, Scotstoun; and Yarrow Shipbuilders.
• 1 April – Reporting Scotland, BBC Scotland's national television news programme, is broadcast for the first time.
• 14 May – Murder of Maxwell Garvie: Mariticide in Kincardineshire.^[2]
• 18 May – Declaration of Perth: Conservative Party leader, Edward Heath proposes a directly elected Scottish Assembly.^[3]
• 22 May – The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland permits the ordination of women as ministers.^[4]
• 4 June – General Post Office introduces the first postbus in Scotland, Dunbar–Innerwick–Spott, East Lothian.
• 18 November – James Watt Street fire: A warehouse fire in Glasgow kills 22.^[5]
• Bluevale and Whitevale Towers, 298 ft (90.8 m) blocks of flats, completed in Glasgow.

Births

• 31 January – John Collins, international footballer
• 4 March – Christina McKelvie, Scottish Government minister (died 2025)
• 16 March – David MacMillan, Scottish-born organic chemist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• 26 April – Daniela Nardini, actress
• 5 August – Colin McRae, rally driver (killed in helicopter accident 2007)^[6]
• 2 September – David Dinsmore, journalist^[7]
• 6 September – Christopher Brookmyre, detective novelist
• 25 October – Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director of the Scottish Government
• 22 November – Sarah Smith, television and radio news reporter
• 23 November – Kirsty Young, television and radio presenter
• 28 December – Pauline Robertson, field hockey player
• Andrew O'Hagan, writer
• Frank Quitely (Vincent Deighan), comic book artist

Deaths

• 17 February – Alexander Gray, economist, poet and translator (born 1882)
• 7 April – Jim Clark, racing car driver (born 1936; killed in motor racing accident)
• 12 September – Tommy Armour, golfer (born 1894)
• 13 November – Joe Corrie, miner, poet and playwright (born 1894)

See also

• 1968 in Northern Ireland