Events from the year 1865 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers Lord Advocate – James Moncreiff Solicitor General for Scotland – George Young
Judiciary Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Colonsay Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Glenalmond
Events 16 January – new fishing harbour at St Monans completed. 3 March – Thomas Sutherland founds the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. 28 July – English general practitioner Edward William Pritchard becomes the last person publicly hanged in Glasgow (on Glasgow Green), for poisoning his wife and mother-in-law in the city. 6 October – the iron cargo/passenger steamer Agamemnon is launched by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Greenock. Equipped with an efficient compound steam engine, she pioneers trade by steam to the Far East. 30–31 December – 24 vessels are wrecked around the Dubh Artach reef in a storm. 165 emigrants leave the island of Raasay for Australia. Joseph Lister begins to experiment with antiseptic surgery in Glasgow using carbolic acid. Fourth cholera pandemic reaches Scotland. James Clerk Maxwell (who this year moves back to the family home at Glenlair House) publishes A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field. Amhuinnsuidhe Castle on Harris is built for Charles Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore by David Bryce.
Births 28 March – Mary Findlater, novelist (died 1963) 27 April – Archibald Leitch, architect, most famous for his work designing stadia throughout the British Isles (died 1939) 28 June – David Young Cameron, painter (died 1945) 17 October – Dugald Cowan, educationalist and Liberal politician (died 1933) 6 November – William Boog Leishman, military physician (died 1926) William Gillies, nationalist (died 1932)
Deaths 18 January – James Beaumont Neilson, ironmaster (born 1792) 5 June – John Richardson, Royal Navy surgeon, naturalist and arctic explorer (born 1787) 4 August – William Edmondstoune Aytoun, poet, humorist and lawyer (born 1813) 19 October – Robert Crichton Wyllie, physician, businessman and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Kingdom of Hawaii (born 1798) 23 December – Alan Stevenson, lighthouse designer (born 1807)
The arts Thomas Faed's painting The Last of the Clan is first exhibited Gaelic poet William Livingston (Uilleam Macdhunleibhe)'s collection Duain agus Orain is published in GlasgowWhyte, Christopher (1991). William Livingston/Uilleam Macdhunleibhe (1808-70): a survey of his poetry and prose. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow. Retrieved 2014-08-18. George MacDonald's novel Alec Forbes of Howglen is published
See also Timeline of Scottish history 1865 in Ireland
References