1943 in Scotland

Events from the year 1943 in Scotland.

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11 February – At the Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election, the radical socialist Common Wealth Party candidate Tom Wintringham comes close to winning the seat (which is held for the Unionist Party by Sir David King Murray).
24 February – Royal Navy submarine HMS Vandal is lost with all 37 crew on sea trials in the Sound of Bute; she would not be located until 1994.^[1]^[2]
27 March – Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher (D37) is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.
21 April – "Big Blitz" bombing of Aberdeen.^[3]
30 May – Royal Navy submarine HMS Untamed (P58) is lost with all hands on a training exercise in the Firth of Clyde.
19 June – Jackie Paterson wins the world flyweight boxing title by a knockout in the first minute at Hampden Park in Glasgow.^[4]
5 August – North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board established by Act of Parliament^[5] (with headquarters in Edinburgh).
11 November – Total evacuation of an area near Portmahomack in Easter Ross begins, to make way for rehearsal of the Normandy Landings.^[6]
2 December – Broughty Ferry pigeon Winkie, serving with the Royal Air Force, is among the first recipients of the Dickin Medal, instituted to honour the work of animals in war.^[7]
The last crofting family leaves the island of South Rona.
Ferranti open a plant at Crewe Toll in Edinburgh, originally to manufacture gyro gunsights for aircraft.

23 January – Ernie Hannigan, footballer (died 2015 in Australia)
31 January – Peter McRobbie, screen actor in the United States
18 February – Graeme Garden, author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, one of The Goodies
1 March – Witold Rybczynski, Canadian American architect, born in Edinburgh
3 April – John Hughes, footballer (died 2022))
16 April – Morris Stevenson, footballer (died 2014)
19 April – Margo MacDonald, politician (died 2014)^[8]
1 May – Ian Dunn, gay and paedophile rights activist, founder of the Scottish Minorities Group (died 1998)^[9]
5 May – Kay Ullrich, politician (died 2021)
10 May – Jack Bruce, rock musician (died 2014)
22 June – J. Michael Kosterlitz, Scottish-born condensed matter physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
16 July – Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins, comedy writer
18 July – Robin MacDonald, pop guitarist (died 2015)
20 August – Sylvester McCoy, born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith, actor
16 October – Tommy Gemmell, footballer (died 2017)
24 November – Robin Williamson, acoustic musician
28 November – George T. Miller, film director (died 2023 in Australia)
Alan Bold, poet and biographer (died 1998)
G. C. Peden, historian
D. R. Thorpe, biographer

November – Sorley MacLean's first collection of Gaelic poems, Dàin do Eimhir agus Dàin Eile, is published.
Glasgow Citizens Theatre founded.
Poetry Scotland magazine founded in Glasgow by Maurice Lindsay.