ScotlandsPeople has released 146,842 online images consisting of just over 250,000 birth, death and marriage entries. You can search for, view and save images of them on the ScotlandsPeople website. The newly available records include 48,728 marriages in 1945 and 64,943 deaths in 1970.
The Registrar General for Scotland’s report for 1920 records the births of 136,546 living children during that year. This was an increase of 30,278 more than the previous year. From the total number of children registered, 69,719 were male and 66,827 were female. Single births totalled 132,857 births and there were 1,822 twins and 15 triplet births.
There had been a marked decline of the birth-rate during the course of the First World War. In 1919, a post-war rise in the birth-rate was noted and this continued up to March 1920.
One baby born in 1920 was Lyall Stuart Scott who, in time, became a renowned Scottish urologist. Lyall was born on 22nd September 1920 in Clarkston, Cathcart parish, in the west of Scotland. His parents were Lyall Scott, a stockbroker, and Margaret Stuart who had been married two years earlier in Hillhead, Glasgow.
The birth entry of Lyall Stuart Scott, 22nd September 1920
Crown copyright, National Records of Scotland, Statutory Register of Births, 1920, 633/B 759 page 253
Lyall was educated at the Glasgow High School and Strathallan School, Perthshire, before graduating from the University of Glasgow in 1943. He joined the Army Medical Corps where he was appointed Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services for the Eighth Army, serving in Italy and Austria.
Following demobilisation he was based in Taunton, England, as a resident surgical officer before returning to Scotland to work in several hospitals in the Glasgow area. In 1948 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and the following year a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
On 21 October 1950, at the church of St John the Baptist in Wellington, Somerset, England, Lyall married Henrietta Frances Woolley, the daughter of Samuel Woolley and the late Mrs Rosina Woolley. The Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser reported that Henrietta wore a white satin gown embossed with large roses. Her lace veil, lent by a friend, was held in place by a coronet of orange blossom. Henrietta carried a bouquet of lilies of the valley, pink carnations and blue orchids and was walked down the aisle by Dr E R Willis. The reception took place at Dr Willis’ home and the newlywed couple honeymooned in Dublin.
Over the next decade Lyall qualified as a Master of Surgery and Doctor of Medicine and was elected a member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons in June 1961. The following year he was appointed consultant urologist at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, and the Royal Beatson Memorial Hospital.
He published many research papers during his career – see for example his paper ‘The Diagnosis and Treatment of Embryonic Renal Tumours’ – and served on various committees including the Urology Committee of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Lyall enjoyed sailing and became vice commodore of the Bahama Cruising Club
He died suddenly on 8th October 1977 in Giffnock and was survived by his wife, daughter and son.
You can read more about how to search the birth records in our online guide.
