| 'In England there were 652,777 voters after the (Reform) bill, an increase of around 80 %; in Scotland, with a new electorate of 64,447, the increase was 1,400 %.' I. G. C. Hutchison. A political history of Scotland, 1832 - 1924: Parties, elections and issues. John Donald, Edinburgh 1986. |
General election. The first Reform Act has increased the electorate of Scotland fourteen-fold from 4,500 to 64,447. The number of adult males who can vote is one in eight, compared to one in five in England, and one in 125 in Scotland before the Reform Act. Scotland's representation rises from 45 to 53.
MPs elected from Scotland: 41 Liberals and 12 Conservatives.
The Palace of Westminster is gutted by fire. Most of the Houses of Commons and Lords are destroyed along with St Stephen's chapel.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 36 Liberals and 17 Conservatives.
Conservatives gain the County of Edinburgh, Inverness, Orkney & Shetland, Roxburgh, Selkirk and Stirling from the Liberals.
Liberals win Haddington from the Conservatives.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 35 Liberals and 18 Conservatives.
Conservatives win six seats from the Liberals.
Liberals win five seats from the Conservatives.
Death of William III (IV of England), the last King of the House of Hanover. The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland is inherited by his neice Victoria, the duchess of Kent & Strathearn. The kingdom of Hanover is inherited by William's younger brother, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland & Teviotdale.
The Court of Session in Edinburgh asserts that the Church of Scotland is subject to the state.
The Scottish Patriot, a Chartist newspaper, is printed for the first time.
The National Census reveals that the Scottish population is 2.6 million, up 250,000 on 1831.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 32 Liberals and 21 Conservatives.
Conservatives win the Counties of Argyll, Dumbarton, Edinburgh, Roxburgh and the Haddington and Falkirk groups of Burghs from the Liberals.
Liberals win the Counties of Caithness, Renfrew and Wigtown and the Kilmarnock District of Burghs from the Conservatives.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland condemns patronage.
The Disruption. 474 out of 1,200 Ministers quit the Church of Scotland to form the Fre Church of Scotland.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 36 Liberals and 17 Conservatives.
Conservatives win the County of Renfrew from the Liberals.
Liberals win the Counties of Roxburgh and Ross & Cromarty and the Haddington Burghs from the Conservatives.
A crowd of 100,000 people gathers on Glasgow Green to support the Chartist movement.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 35 Liberals and 18 Conservatives.
Conservatives win the County of Ayr from the Liberals.
The Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights campaigns for an increase in the number of Scottish MPs and for the post of Secretary of State (abolished in 1746) to be reinstated.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 39 Liberals and 14 Conservatives.
Conservatives win the County of Dumfries from the Liberals.
Liberals win the Counties of Ayr and Argyll and the Falkirk District of Burghs from the Conservatives.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 40 Liberals and 13 Conservatives.
Conservatives win the County of Bute from the Liberals.
Liberals win the Shires of Lanark and Berwick from the Conservatives.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 43 Liberals and 10 Conservatives.
Conservatives retainAberdeenshire, won from the Liberals in a by-election.
Liberals win the Counties of Bute, Kincardine, Renfrew and Stirling from the Conservatives.
The duchy of Edinburgh is created for Queen Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred, who is also Duke of Saxony and Prince of Coburg & Gotha in Germany.
The second Reform Act becomes law in England & Wales. This extends the francishe to all males over the age of 21 who have resided at the same place for at least one year. Property ownership is no longer necessary, but women still cannot vote.
The Scottish Woman's Suffrage Society meets in Edinburgh with as Pesident, Priscilla McLaren, wife of Duncan McLaren (Radical MP for Edinburgh, 1865 - 1881).
The second Reform Act becomes law in Scotland. This extends the franchise to all male owners and occupiers over the age of 21 who have resided at the same place for at least one year. Property ownership is no longer necessary and occupiers of lands with a rareable value of at least £ 14 per annum and lodgers with lodgings worth £10 per annum can vote in county and burgh constituencies respectively. Women still cannot vote. These provisions increase the electorate to about 230,000. Scotland's representation at Westminster is increased from 53 to 60: Glasgow and Dundee each gained a member of parliament, while Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire are each divided into two seats. Two new University seats (Aberdeen & Glasgow and Edinburgh & St Andrews) are also created.
Benjamin Disraeli's wife Mary, is created 1 st Viscountess Beaconsfield in her own right. Disraeli himself is created 1 st Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, four years after his wife's death.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 52 Liberals and 8 Conservatives.
John Campbell, Marquis of Lorne (Liberal MP for Argyllshire and later 9 th Duke of Argyll) marries Princess Louise, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.
The Ballot Act is passed. This decress that Members of Parliament will hereby be elected by secret ballot rather than in public.
The Education (Scotland) Act is passed. All children between the ages of five and 13 will go to school. This amends previous acts of Acts of 1696, 1793, 1839 and 1861.
The Patronage Act, which has been law since 1712, is finally repealed.
The Royal Titles Act permits Queen Victoria to use the title Empress of India.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 40 Liberals and 20 Conservatives.
In the 'Midlothian campaign' William Ewart Gladstone adresses more than 85,000 people and wins Edinburghshire (Midlothian) from the Tory William Montagu-Douglas-Scott, Earl of Dalkeith, later 6 th Duke of Buccleuch & 8 th Duke of Queensberry.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 53 Liberals and 7 Conservatives.
Soon after the Conservatives win the Wigtown Burghs and the County of Bute in by-elections.
The Householders of Scotland Act is passed. This allows some women to vote in local elections.
Eyemouth Fishing disaster. 129 local fishermen die in a storm which affects many other east coast fishing communities.
'Crofters' War' on Skye between 50 police and islanders over evictions and the erosion of tennants' rights by Lord MacDonald. Troops and gunboats are dispatched to the island to uphold the privileges of the landowner.
The Highland Land League is formed to campaign for tennants' rights for crofters.
The Corrupt & Illegal Practices Prevention Act becomes law. This tightens loopholes in the law concerning bribery, threatening and impersonation and sets a limit on electoral expenses.
A third Reform Act, known as the Francise Act, is passed. This includes the franchise to farm workers.
16,000 demonstrate in Dundee following the House of Lord's rejection of the Redistribution Act.
The Redistribution Act becomes law. This creates constituencies of approximately equal size. Scotland gains an extra 10 seats: two burgh seats are merged with counties while seven new county seats are created, and seven extra burgh seats are created in Aberdeen, Edinbugh and Glasgow.
The Duke of Richmond, Gordon & Lennox becomes the first Secretary for Scotland since the office of Secretary of State was abolished in 1746. The Scottish office is created to deal with a limited amount of specifically Scottish legislation and reduce the work load on the Lord Advocate's office.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 62 Liberals (including four Highland Land League MPs) and 10 Unionists
The Scottish Home Rule Association is formed to present the case for a Scottish parliament.
Westminster passes the Crofters' Holding Act which provides limited security of tenure to crofters.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 43 Liberals, 17 Liberal-Unionists and 12 Conservatives.
Scotland is to receive 13.75 % of any government spending in the United Kingdom.
Keir Hardie founds the Scots Labour Party in Glasgow with Scottish Home Rule as a fundamental aim. The Labour party first gains power in 1924, but does not deliver its policy of home rule for Scotland until 1999, 111 years after its foundation.
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 50) is passed by the Westminster parliament. This establishes country councils in Scotland from the original counties. The system remains in place until 1975.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 50 Liberals, 12 Liberal-Unionists and 10 Conservatives.
Keir Hardie founds the Independent Labour Party with two other socialist MPs.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 39 Liberals, 31 Liberal-Unionists and Conservatives.
Elected country councils are introduced in Scotland in place of appointed commissioners of supply.
Striking coal miners riot in Motherwell while protesting against evictions.
The Scottish Grand Committee meets for the first time.
William Ewart Gladstone, 4 times Prime Minister and MP for Edinburghshire (Midlothian) since 1880, resigns as Prime Minister.
Queen Victoria appoints the Scottish aristocrat, Archibald Phillip Primrose, 5 th Earl of Roseberry, as Prime Minister.
The Scottish Trades Union Congress is formed.
The Labour Representative Committee is set up with Ramsay MacDonald of the Independent Labour Party as secretary.
General election - 'Khaki Election'. MPs elected from Scotland: 34 Liberals, 36 Liberal-Unionists and Conservatives.
Death of Queen Victoria. She is succeeded by her son Edward I (VII of England) of the House of Saxa-Coburg Gotha.
King Edward appoints his nephew, Kaiser William of Germany, as a Field Marshall in the British Army.
North East Lanarkshire by-election following the death of John Colville. Sir William Henry Rattigan KC, gains the seat for the Liberal Unionists with a 904 majority over Liberal Cecil B. Harsworth. The Liberals regain the seat in a by-election in August 1904.
Arthur James Balfour, later 1st Earl of Balfour, becomes Conservative Prime Minister.
John Cathcart Watson (MP for Orkney & Shetland) resigns the Liberal Unionist whip to sit as an Independent Liberal. He retains his seat in a by-election with a 412 majority over Liberal T. Wood. He joins the Liberal party in 1905.
Argyllshire by-election following the death of Donald Ninian Nicol. John Stirling Ainsworth gains the seat for the Liberals with a 1,586 majority over Conservative C. Stewart.
St Andrews burghs by-election following the appointment of Henry Charles Anstruther as Director of the Suez Canal. Edward Charles Ellice gains the seat for the Liberals with a 36 majority over the Conservative Major William Anstruther-Thomson (later William Anstruther-Gray).
Andrew Graham Murray is appointed Tory Secretary for Scotland.
Ayr burghs by-election following the death of Charles Lindsay Orr-Ewing. Joseph Dobbie gains the seat for the Liberals with a majority of 44 over Tory George Younger, later 1 st Viscount Younger of Leckie. At the General election in 1906, George Younger wins the seat back for the Tories.
John Wilson (MP for Falkirk Burghs) resigns the Liberal Unionist whip to sit as a Liberal.
North East Lanarkshire by-election following the death of Sir William Henry Rattigan KC. Alexander Findlay gains the seat for the Liberals with a 942 majority over Conservative G.A Touch.
John Adrian Louis Hope, 1 st Marquis of Linlithgow is apponted Tory Secretary for Scotland.
Buteshire by-election following the appointment of the Rt Hon Andrew Graham Murray, later Viscount Dunedin, as Lord President of the Court of Session. Norman Lamont gains the seat for the Liberals with a majority of 14 over Conservative E. Salvesen K.C..
A bill designed to give women the vote is talked out of the House of Commons.
Following the resignation of Tory, Arthur Balfour, later 1 st Earl of Balfour, over tarrif reform, another Scot, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal MP for Stirling Burghs) becomes Prime Minister.
John Sinclair, 1 st Lord Pentland is apponted Liberal Secretary for Scotland.
General election. MPs elected from Scotland: 58 Liberals, 10 Liberal-Unionists and Conservatives and two Labour.
Labour MPs elect Keir Hardie as their leader.
Scottish Home Rule bill fails to make committee stage. A further five bills also fail.
Women are allowed to stand as candidates for local councils for the first time. Mrs Lavinia Malcolm is elected as Scotland's first (and only) female councillor. In 1913 she is appointed Provost of Dollar Town Council in Clackmannanshire.
Herbert Asquith, later the First Earl of Oxford & Asquith, (Liberal MP for East Fife) becomes Prime Minister following the resignation of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal MP for Stirling Burghs) due to ill health.
Alexander Cross (MP for Glasgow Camlachie) resigns the Liberal Unionist whip and sits as a Liberal.
Glasgow Central by-election following the death of Sir Andrew Mitchell Torrance. The Rt Hon Charles Scott Dickson gains the seat for the Tories with a 2,113 majority over Liberal T. Gibson Bowles.
Archibald Cameron Corbett, later Baron Rowallan (MP for Glasgow Tradeston) resigns the Liberal Unionist whip to sit as an Independent Liberal.
General election. Liberal government under the Rt Hon Herbert Asquith. MPs elected from Scotland: 59 Liberals, 11 Unionists, and two Labour.
Liberals win Ayrshire North, Lanarkshire Govan, Lanarkshire North West, St. Andrews Burghs and Wick Burghs from the Unionists.
Unionists win Buteshire, Glasgow Camlachie, Kircudbrightshire, West Perthshire and East Renfrewshire from the Liberals.
General election. Liberal government under the Rt Hon Herbert Asquith. MPs elected from Scotland: 59 Liberals, 11 Unionists and two Labour.
Liberals win Kircudbrightshire from the Unionists.
Unionists win St. Andrews Burghs from the Liberals.
Labour wins West Fife from the Liberals.
The Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith threatens to create 300 new peers to end the Tory dominance in the House of Commons and end their systematic rejection of bills from the House of Commons.
Death of Edward I (VII of England) of the House of Saxe Coburg & Gotha. He is succeeded by his second son, George V, of the House of Saxe Coburg & Gotha.
Constitutional conference. Leaders of the main parties meet at Downing Street to discuss curbing the powers of the House of Lords which has blocked numerous bills from the Commons.
Due to the conflict between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, proposals for greater autonomy for Scotland and Wales are mothballed.
The Parliament Act is passed by the House of Lords by 131 votes to 114. The act removes the House of Lords' ability to veto finance bills and restricts their ability to delay other bills from the House of Commons to a maximum of two years. The Act reduces the maximum interval between elections to the House of Commons from seven years to five years.
Note, although the House of Commons was an elected body, at this point in time only some 30 % of the adult population were enfranchised. While six out of ten adult males had the vote, no adult females were allowed to vote.
North Ayrshire by-election following the appointment of Andrew Macbeth Anderson K.C. as Solicitor-General for Scotland. Captain Duncan Frederick Campbell gains the seat for the Tories with a 271 majority over Liberal Andrew Macbeth Anderson K.C..
Thomas MacKinnon-Wood is apponted Liberal Secretary for Scotland.
Edinburghshire (Midlothian) by-election following the appointment of the Rt Hon Alexander William Charles William Murray as Lord Murray of Elibank. (NB Lord Murray of Elibank died before his father, the first Viscount Elibank and 10 th Lord Elibank, and did not become second Viscount Elibank as is stated by several sources.) Major John Augustus Hope gains the seat for the Tories with a 31 majority over Liberal the Hon A. Shaw.
Leith by-election following the appointment of Sir Ronald Crauford Munro-Ferguson, later 1 st Viscount Novar, as Governor General of Australia. George Welsh Currie gains the seat for the Tories with a 16 majority over Liberal M. Smith.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, is assassinated by Serbian nationalists in Sarajevo.
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. In response, Serbia's ally, Russia, declares war on Austria-Hungary.
Germany declares war on Russia.
Germany declares war on France.
Britain declares war on Germany and enters the Great War.
Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary.
The luxury liner Lusitania, built in Clydebank, is sunk by a German submarine resulting in 1,959 deaths.
Gretna Green disaster. 227 people, mostly soldiers, die in the UK's worst crash when a troops train carrying the Royal Scots hits a stationary local train, and is then itself hit by an express passenger train from London.
Death of James Kier Hardie, the founder of the Labour party.
The Minister for War, Lord Kitchener, is killed when his ship hits a mine near the Orkney Islands.
Harold John Tennant is apponted Liberal Secretary for Scotland in the Coalition government.
Resignation of the Prime Minister, Herbet Asquith (Liberal MP for East Fife). He is succeeded by David Lloyd George, who replaced Lord Kitchener as Minister for War in June 1916.
Robert Munro (Lord Alness) is apponted Liberal Secretary for Scotland in the coalition governement.
John George Stewart-Murray, Marquis of Tullibardine (Unionist MP for West Perthshire) succeeds his father as 8th Duke of Atholl.
Due to anti-German feeling, the Royal Family changes their German titles and surnames. The House of Saxe Coburg ≈ Gotha is changed to the House of Windsor by an Order-In-Council.
The House of Lords debates the sale of honours for party funds by David Lloyd George. Despite the scandal and degradation of the system, the sale of honours becomes firmly established and the tradition continues to this day.
Royal Assent is given to the Representation of the People Act which allows women over the age of 30 to vote. The voting age for men who served in the war reduced to 19 years. Plural voting is abolished. Individuals are allowed to vote in no more than two constituencies on different qualifications. Proportional representation is introduced for University seats with more than two members. All constituencies are to poll on the same day. Seats are redistributed equally according to electorate. Postal and proxy voting is introduced for those serving abroad.