1872 in Scotland

Centuries:	17th; 18th; 19th; 20th; 21st;
Decades:	1850s; 1860s; 1870s; 1880s; 1890s;
See also:	List of years in Scotland; Timeline of Scottish history; 1872 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere; Scottish football: 1871–72 • 1872–73

Events from the year 1872 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Law officers

Judiciary

Events

May
- Rangers F.C., founded in March as an Association football club in Glasgow by brothers Moses and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell and William McBeath, play their first ever game on the public pitches of Glasgow Green, a goalless draw against Callander
- John Kibble's conservatory is dismantled at Coulport for re-erection in Glasgow Botanic Gardens
9 July – Tradeston Flour Mills explosion in Glasgow kills 18^[1]^[2]^[3]
10 August – First Education (Scotland) Act passed, providing compulsory English-language education for all aged 5–13^[4]
19 August – First horse trams in Glasgow, running from St George's Cross to Eglinton Toll^[5]
2 October – Kirtlebridge rail crash at Kirtlebridge station on the Caledonian Railway in Dumfries and Galloway: 12 killed in a collision^[6]
30 November – Scotland v England, the first FIFA-recognized international football match, takes place at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow; the result is a goalless draw^[7]
12 December – Third Lanark A.C. is established as the Association football team of the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers
December – Wick Harbour breakwater is washed away in a storm
Dhu Heartach lighthouse is first lit
David Colville & Sons open their Dalzell Steel and Iron Works at Motherwell
Guard Bridge paper mills established near Leuchars
The Egyptian Halls, a pioneering iron-framed commercial building in Glasgow designed by Alexander Thomson, is completed
The last Thurso Castle is built
Clydebank High School established
First hospital built on the site at Govan (Glasgow) that will become Queen Elizabeth University Hospital
The Northern Psalter and Hymn Tune Book edited by William Carnie is published in Aberdeen containing Jessie Seymour Irvine's setting of Psalm 23, "Crimond"^[8]
The Scottish Gaelic magazine Féillire is first published as Almanac Gàilig air son 1872 in Inverness^[9]
The Shetland Times is first published in Lerwick
Other Association football clubs established this year include Ayr Thistle, Clydesdale, Dumbarton and Renton

Births

12 February – Alexander Gibb, civil engineer (died 1958)
5 May – Norman Smith, philosopher (died 1958)
13 June – Chrystal Macmillan, mathematician, suffragist, politician, barrister and pacifist (died 1937)
2 October – Thomas Hunter, Unionist Party MP for Perth (1935–45) (died 1953)

Deaths

14 January – Greyfriars Bobby, faithful Skye Terrier dog
27 February – John McLeod Campbell, minister and theologian (born 1800)
16 June – Norman Macleod, Church of Scotland minister (born 1812)
20 August – William Miller, poet (born 1810)
28 November – Mary Somerville, scientist (born 1780)
24 December – William John Macquorn Rankine, pioneer of thermodynamics (born 1820)

References

^ "Fearful Explosion and Great Fire in Tradeston - Great Loss of Life". The Glasgow Herald. 10 July 1872 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "The Explosion and Fire in Tradeston". The Glasgow Herald. 12 July 1872 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ McDowall, John K. (1899). The People's History of Glasgow. Hay Nisbet & Co.
^ "Chronology of Scottish History". A Timeline of Scottish History. Rampant Scotland. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
^ Jones, Chris (12 October 2019). "Glasgow Trams through the Years". Glasgow History. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
^ Rolt, L. T. C.; Kichenside, Geoffrey (1982) [1955]. Red for Danger (4th ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 63–64. ISBN 0-7153-8362-0.
^ "The First International Football Match". BBC. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
^ Johnson, Ronald (July 1988). "How far is it to Crimond?". Hymn Society Bulletin (176): 38.
^ Ferguson, Mary; Matheson, Ann (1984). Scottish Gaelic Union Catalogue. Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland. ISBN 0902220608.