1931 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George V
• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – William Adamson until 24 August; then Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bt

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Craigie Mason Aitchison
• Solicitor General for Scotland – John Charles Watson until November; then Wilfrid Normand

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Clyde
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Alness
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord St Vigeans

  Events

• 13 February – Scottish Youth Hostels Association established.
• 1 May – National Trust for Scotland established and acquires its first property, Crookston Castle.
• 5 September – Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson dies in hospital after fracturing his skull in a collision with Rangers forward Sam English in the 'Old Firm' League derby at Ibrox Park.
• 15–16 September – Invergordon Mutiny: Sailors in the Royal Navy take strike action over pay cuts.
• 27 October – 1931 United Kingdom general election: The Unionist Party wins a majority of Scottish seats as the National Government retains power with a landslide victory throughout the UK.
• 12 December – work on construction of "Hull 534", the Cunard liner, at John Brown & Company's shipyard at Clydebank is suspended due to the Great Depression.
• 31 December – Ayr Corporation Tramways cease operation, being replaced by bus services operated by Scottish Motor Traction.
• Lord Dumfries purchases the recently deserted islands of St Kilda from Sir Reginald MacLeod of Dunvegan to preserve them as a bird sanctuary; he will bequeath them to the National Trust of Scotland on his death in 1956.

  Births

• 2 January – James D. Murray, mathematician and academic
• 12 January – Bert Ormond, Scottish-born New Zealand footballer
• 26 February – Ally McLeod, football manager
• 13 March – James Martin, actor
• 13 March – Helen Renton, Director of the Women's Royal Air Force
• 18 March – John Fraser, actor
• 29 March – James Weatherhead, Church of Scotland minister
• 27 April – Alex Campbell, folk singer
• 29 April – Lonnie Donegan, skiffle musician
• 30 April - William Watson, author, playwright and newspaper editor
• 3 May – Thomas Sutherland, academic and Islamic Jihad hostage
• 9 May - Jimmy Gauld, footballer, who instigated and exposed match fixing,
• 9 May – Alistair MacFarlane, engineer and academic
• 11 June – Kenneth Cameron, Baron Cameron of Lochbroom, lawyer and judge
• 1 August - Pat Heywood, actress
• 2 August – Karl Miller, literary editor
• 11 September – Bill Simpson, television actor
• 22 September – George Younger, Conservative politician, Secretary of State for Scotland
• 24 September – Elizabeth Blackadder, painter
• September - Arthur Thompson, gangster
• 9 December – Ian McIntyre, journalist and BBC Radio executive
• 16 December - Karl Denver, singer
• 29 December – Bobby Shearer, footballer
• Eric Auld, painter,

  Deaths

• 17 March – James Stewart, Labour Party politician, MP for Glasgow St. Rollox 1922–1931
• 27 May – Norah Neilson Gray, portrait painter
• 5 August – Archibald Barr, mechanical engineer
• 3 December - Frederick Walters, architect, notable for his Roman Catholic churches
• 7 December – Leslie Hunter, painter
• – David Hay Fleming, historian and antiquary
• – Ronald Campbell Macfie, medical doctor, poet and science writer
• – Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison, philosopher

  The arts

• A. J. Cronin's first novel Hatter's Castle is published.
• Bruce Marshall's novel Father Malachy's Miracle is published.
• Dorothy L. Sayers' detective story The Five Red Herrings, set amongst the Galloway artistic community, is published.