1909 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Edward VII
• Secretary for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Thomas Shaw; then Alexander Ure
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Ure; then Arthur Dewar

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Dunedin
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Kingsburgh

  Events

• March – Construction of Rosyth Dockyard for the Royal Navy on the east coast begins.
• 17 April – 58 police officers and sixty other people are injured as 6,000 fans invade the pitch and brawl with rival fans and the police at the end of the drawn Scottish Cup Final replay between Rangers and Celtic at Hampden Park, Glasgow. The 1909 Scottish Cup and all medals are withheld.
• 24 May – Dundee United F.C. is formed as Dundee Hibernian, playing its first match on 18 August.
• 25 May – Oscar Slater found guilty of murder in Glasgow.
• 28 July – Harold Barnwell makes the first powered flight in Scotland, an 80-yard hop at 4m altitude in a canard biplane built with his brother Frank at Stirling, before crashing.
• 25 December – international footballer James Main suffers a fatal internal injury while playing for Hibernian F.C. against Partick Thistle at Firhill.
• A new Highland Land League is formed in Glasgow as a broadly left-wing political party.
• The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland is founded by Thomas Haining Gillespie, an Edinburgh lawyer.
• First British bird ringing programme initiated by Arthur Landsborough Thomson at Aberdeen.
• The Harris Tweed trademark is registered.
• The Scotch whisky brand name Johnnie Walker is introduced.
• New pump room built at the spa town of Strathpeffer.

  Births

• 16 January – Ellen King, Olympic swimmer
• 20 January – Olive Fraser, poet
• 21 January – James Hoy, Labour Member of Parliament for Leith 1945-1970
• 9 February – Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson, historian and paleographer
• 24 February – Ethel MacDonald, anarchist and publisher
• 6 March – Vagaland, Shetland dialect poet
• 14 March – William Montgomery Watt, historian and Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic studies
• 27 April – Muriel C. Bradbrook, literary scholar and authority on Shakespeare
• 9 May – Robert Garioch, Scots language poet
• 26 May – Matt Busby, football manager
• 5 June – Marion Crawford, Scottish educator and governess to Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth II
• 19 June – William Grant, Lord Grant, Unionist MP, Solicitor General, Lord Advocate, and Lord Justice Clerk
• 5 September – Archie Jackson, Australian international cricketer
• 23 November – Nigel Tranter, historical writer
• 2 December – Helen Douglas Adam, poet, writer and dramatist
• Lavinia Derwent, author and broadcaster
• Helena Gloag, actress

  Deaths

• 1 January – Archibald Sturrock, steam locomotive engineer
• 2 March – Simon Somerville Laurie, educator
• 27 March – John Davidson, poet
• 26 April – Marcus Dods, theologian
• 9 August – Jemima Blackburn, painter and illustrator
• 9 October – Hugh Blackburn, mathematician
• 29 December – James Main, footballer