1884 in Scotland

Events from the year 1884 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – John Blair Balfour
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Asher

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Glencorse
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Moncreiff

Events

• 26 January – Scotland beat Ireland 5-0 in the first match of the first British Home Championship in Association football.^[1]
• 15 March – Scotland beat England 1-0 in their second match of the British Home Championship.^[1]
• 29 March – Scotland beat Wales 4-1 to win the first British Home Championship.^[1]
• 28 April – Napier Commission delivers the Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry Into the Condition of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.^[2]
• 12 June – Pier terminal opened at Rothesay, Bute.^[3]
• 1 July – First International Forestry Exhibition opens at Donaldson's Hospital, Edinburgh,^[4] during which an electric railway is demonstrated.
• 17 July – Barque Vicksburg of Leith goes aground on Muckle Skerry in the Pentland Skerries with the loss of nine lives; twelve are saved by the island's lighthouse keepers.^[5]
• Autumn – Origin of St Johnstone F.C. in Perth.
• 2 November – Fourteen people are killed when some of the audience at the Star Theatre, Glasgow, panic following a false fire alarm.^[6]
• 11 November – Blackford Hill is acquired by the city of Edinburgh.^[7]
• 18 November – Crofters War: Royal Marines and police arrive in naval ships at Uig, Skye, following an unsuccessful attempt to evict tenants engaging in a rent strike against Major William Fraser, owner of the Kilmuir Estate and Uig Tower.^[8]
• 1 December – Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway opens to passengers.
• 6 December – Representation of the People Act 1884 extends the franchise to many crofters.^[9]
• Teacher's Highland Cream blended whisky registered.

Births

• 11 February – Joseph Westwood, Labour MP (1922–31 and 1935–48) and Secretary of State for Scotland (1945–1947) (died 1948)
• 24 February – William Theodore Heard, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic church (died 1973 in Rome)
• 22 May – Wilhelmina Hay Abbott, suffragist and feminist (died 1957 in England)^[10]
• 28 August – Peter Fraser, Labour prime minister of New Zealand (1940–1949) (died 1950 in New Zealand)

Deaths

• 26 February – Alexander Wood, physician, inventor of the first true hypodermic syringe (born 1817)
• 30 November – Sir Alexander Grant, 10th Baronet, Principal of the University of Edinburgh (born 1826 in the United States)
• 20 December – William Lindsay Alexander, church leader (born 1808)
• Anthony Inglis, shipbuilder (born 1813)

The arts

• Publication of Songs of the North by Harold Boulton and Anne MacLeod including the first known version of "The Skye Boat Song".

See also

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1884 in Ireland

References

1. ^ "Scotland International Matches 1872 to 1899". MyFootballFacts. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
2. ^ "The Napier Commission". University of the Highlands and Islands. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
3. ^ "The Opening of the New Waiting Rooms on the Pier". Rothesay Chronicle. 1884-06-14. p. 3.
4. ^ "The Forestry Exhibition". The Morning Post. 1884-07-02. p. 3.
5. ^ "Pentland Skerries". Lighthouse Library. Edinburgh: Northern Lighthouse Board. 2009. Archived from the original on 16 November 2009. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
6. ^ "Terrible Panic in a Glasgow Theatre". The Cornishman. No. 329. 6 November 1884. p. 7.
7. ^ "The purchase of the Blackford Hill". Edinburgh Evening News. 1884-10-01. p. 2.
8. ^ "Local history". Uig - Isle of Skye. Archived from the original on 19 March 2015. Retrieved 2014-05-18.
9. ^ Crowley, D. W. "The Crofters' Party – 1885 to 1892: The first British independent common people's political party". Retrieved 2017-04-24.
10. ^ The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women. Edinburgh University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9781474436281.