Portal:Scotland

The Royal Oak at anchor in 1937

HMS Royal Oak was one of five Revenge-class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Completed in 1916, the ship first saw combat at the Battle of Jutland as part of the Grand Fleet. In peacetime, she served in the Atlantic, Home and Mediterranean fleets, more than once coming under accidental attack. Royal Oak drew worldwide attention in 1928 when her senior officers were controversially court-martialled, an event that brought considerable embarrassment to what was then the world's largest navy. Attempts to modernise Royal Oak throughout her 25-year career could not fix her fundamental lack of speed and, by the start of the Second World War, she was no longer suitable for front-line duty.

On 14 October 1939, Royal Oak was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland, when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-47. Of Royal Oak's complement of 1,234 men and boys, 835 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. The loss of the outdated ship—the first of five Royal Navy battleships and battlecruisers sunk in the Second World War—did little to affect the numerical superiority enjoyed by the British navy and its Allies, but it had a considerable effect on wartime morale. The raid made an immediate celebrity and war hero out of the U-boat commander, Günther Prien, who became the first German submarine officer to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Before the sinking of Royal Oak, the Royal Navy had considered the naval base at Scapa Flow impregnable to submarine attack, but U-47's raid demonstrated that the German navy was capable of bringing the war to British home waters. The shock resulted in rapid changes to dockland security and the construction of the Churchill Barriers around Scapa Flow, with the added advantage of being topped by roads running between the islands. (Full article...) Read more...

In the news

14 April 2023 –

The United Kingdom's Department for Transport approves Ford Motor Company's hands-free driving vehicles on 2,300 miles (3,700 km) of motorways in England, Scotland and Wales. The UK becomes the first European country to approve hands-free driving technology on public roads. (BBC News)

28 March 2023 – 2023 Scottish National Party leadership election

The Scottish Parliament votes to elect Scottish National Party leader Humza Yousaf as First Minister of Scotland, becoming the first non-white and first Muslim to hold the position since it was created in 1999. (STV)

27 March 2023 – 2023 Scottish National Party leadership election

Health and Social Care Secretary Humza Yousaf is elected as the new leader of the separatist Scottish National Party, defeating Finance Secretary Kate Forbes with 52.1% of the vote. (BBC News)

10 March 2023 –

Prince Edward is named as the new Duke of Edinburgh by King Charles III. The title was previously held by his father, Prince Philip. (BBC News)

Portrait of Watson-Watt

Sir Robert Alexander Watson Watt KCB FRS FRAeS (13 April 1892 – 5 December 1973) was a British pioneer of radio direction finding and radar technology.

Watt began his career in radio physics with a job at the Met Office, where he began looking for accurate ways to track thunderstorms using the radio signals given off by lightning. This led to the 1920s development of a system later known as high-frequency direction finding (HFDF or "huff-duff"). Although well publicized at the time, the system's enormous military potential was not developed until the late 1930s. Huff-duff allowed operators to determine the location of an enemy radio in seconds and it became a major part of the network of systems that helped defeat the threat of German U-boats during World War II. It is estimated that huff-duff was used in about a quarter of all attacks on U-boats.

In 1935 Watt was asked to comment on reports of a German death ray based on radio. Watt and his assistant Arnold Frederic Wilkins quickly determined it was not possible, but Wilkins suggested using radio signals to locate aircraft at long distances. This led to a February 1935 demonstration where signals from a BBC short-wave transmitter were bounced off a Handley Page Heyford aircraft. Watt led the development of a practical version of this device, which entered service in 1938 under the code name Chain Home. This system provided the vital advance information that helped the Royal Air Force win the Battle of Britain. (Full article...) Read more ...

Help available

• ... that George Balanchine's ballet Scotch Symphony, set to Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony, evokes the style of La Sylphide, a romantic ballet set in Scotland?
• ... that Crawfurd v The Royal Bank (1749) established in Scots law that a bona fide recipient of stolen banknotes cannot be forced to return them to their original owner?
• ... that the 1943 Rolls-Royce strike at the Merlin engine plant in Hillington, Scotland, was the only major strike for equal pay in the United Kingdom during the Second World War?
• ... that despite his defeat at the battle of Pitgaveny, both of Duncan's sons would later rule Scotland?
• ... that the standard of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, contains references to his status as a former prince of Greece and Denmark, and his title as Duke of Edinburgh?
• ... that visitors to Balmaclellan in Scotland can stay in a historic watermill that is "remarkable" for the preservation of its internal workings?
• ... that Scottish inventor and music teacher Anne Gunn was granted the first British patent for a board game in 1801?
• ... that the Aesculapian Club, founded in Edinburgh in 1773, still meets twice a year?