of Scotland became king of England
(not the other way round), but the
two country didn’t merge their governments until 1707, to form the
Kingdom of Great Britain.
• The Bank of Scotland, founded in
1695, is the oldest surviving bank in
the UK. It was also the first bank in
Europe to print its own banknotes, a
function it still performs today.
• A Scot, William Paterson (1658-1719),
was the instigator and a co-founder
of the Bank of England. He later attempted, unsuccessfully, to establish
Scotland’s first colony, called ‘New
Caledonia’, on the Isthmus of Panama
to facilitate trade with the Far East.
• The post office at Sanquhar, estab-
ing society, formed in 1774 with sixty
members.
• The Encyclopædia Britannica, the
world’s oldest surviving encyclopedia
and one of the most scholarly of encyclopaedias, was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh.
The first nine editions (out of fifteen
so far) were all edited in Scotland.
From 1901 it was edited conjointly in
New York City and London.
• In 1794 Scottish engineer William
Murdoch built the first-ever house to
be lit by gas.
• Henry Duncan founded the world’s
first commercial savings bank at Ruthwell, near Dumfries, in 1810. It effectively founded what would become
opened by philosopher and pedagogue Robert Owen in New Lanark in
1816.
• Edinburgh was the first city in the
world with its own fire brigade, in
1824.
• The Open Championship, the oldest
of the four major golf championships,
was first played in 1860 at Prestwick
Golf Club, in Ayrshire, and was staged
there annually for the first 12 years of
its existence. The only two other golf
courses that have hosted the Open
Championship, Royal Troon and Turnberry, are also located in Ayrshire.
• Forbes Magazine was founded in
1917 in New York by Scottish-born
journalist Bertie Charles Forbes.
lished in 1712, claims to be the oldest
working post office in the world. The
town also has the world’s oldest curl-
the Trustee Savings Bank (TSB), now
part of Lloyds TSB Bank.
• The world’s first infant school was
• Established in 1908, RAF Leuchars in
Fife is the oldest continuously operating military air base in the world.
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