Editing History of Scotland (section)

===First World War (1914–1918)===
{{Further|History of the United Kingdom during World War I}}
Scotland played a major role in the British effort in the First World War.<ref>C. M. M. Macdonald and E. W. McFarland, eds., ''Scotland and the Great War'' (Edinburgh: Tuckwell Press, 1999)</ref> It especially provided manpower, ships, machinery, food (particularly fish) and money, engaging with the conflict with some enthusiasm.<ref>D. Daniel, "Measures of enthusiasm: new avenues in quantifying variations in voluntary enlistment in Scotland, August 1914 – December 1915", ''Local Population Studies'', Spring 2005, Issue 74, pp. 16–35.</ref> Scotland's industries were directed at the war effort. For example, [[Singer Corporation|the Singer Clydebank sewing machine factory]] received over 5000 government contracts, and made 303 million artillery shells, shell components, fuses, and aeroplane parts, as well as grenades, rifle parts, and 361,000 horseshoes. Its labour force of 14,000 was about 70 per cent female at war's end.<ref>Robert Bruce Davies, ''Peacefully working to conquer the world'' (Arno Press, 1976), p. 170.</ref>

With a population of 4.8&nbsp;million in 1911, Scotland sent 690,000 men to the war, of whom 74,000 died in combat or from disease, and 150,000 were seriously wounded.<ref>I. F. W. Beckett and K. R. Simpson, eds. ''A Nation in Arms: a Social Study of the British Army in the First World War'' (Manchester University Press, 1985) p. 11.</ref><ref>R. A. Houston and W. W. Knox, eds., ''The New Penguin History of Scotland'' (Penguin, 2001), p. 426.</ref> Scottish urban centres, with their poverty and unemployment, were favourite recruiting grounds of the regular British army, and Dundee, where the female-dominated jute industry limited male employment, had one of the highest proportion of reservists and serving soldiers than almost any other British city.<ref name="Lenman&Mackie1991">{{Harvp|Mackie|1978}}.</ref> Concern for their families' standard of living made men hesitate to enlist; voluntary enlistment rates went up after the government guaranteed a weekly stipend for life to the survivors of men who were killed or disabled.<ref>D. Coetzee, "A life and death decision: the influence of trends in fertility, nuptiality and family economies on voluntary enlistment in Scotland, August 1914 to December 1915", ''Family and Community History'', Nov 2005, vol. 8 (2), pp. 77–89.</ref> After the introduction of conscription from January 1916 every part of the country was affected. Occasionally Scottish troops made up large proportions of the active combatants, and suffered corresponding loses, as at the [[Battle of Loos]], where there were three full Scots divisions and other Scottish units.<ref name=Lenman&Mackie1991/> Thus, although Scots were only 10 per cent of the British population, they made up 15 per cent of the national armed forces and eventually accounted for 20 per cent of the dead.<ref name="Buchanan2003p49">J. Buchanan, ''Scotland'' (Langenscheidt, 3rd ed., 2003), p. 49.</ref> Some areas, like the thinly populated island of [[Lewis and Harris]], suffered some of the highest proportional losses of any part of Britain.<ref name=Lenman&Mackie1991/> Clydeside shipyards and the nearby engineering shops were the major centres of war industry in Scotland. In Glasgow, radical agitation led to industrial and political unrest that continued after the war ended.<ref>Bruce Lenman, ''An Economic History of Modern Scotland: 1660–1976'' (1977) pp. 206–214.</ref> After the end of the war in June 1919 the [[Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow|German fleet interned at Scapa Flow was scuttled]] by its German crews, to avoid its ships being taken over by the victorious allies.<ref>E. B. Potter, ''Sea Power: a Naval History'' (Naval Institute Press, 2nd ed., 1981), p. 231.</ref>

At the start of the war, the main Scottish military airfield was [[RAF Montrose]], established a year earlier by the [[Royal Flying Corps]] (RFC). The [[Royal Naval Air Service]] established flying-boat and seaplane stations on [[Shetland]], at [[East Fortune]] and [[Inchinnan]], the latter two also serving as the army's airship bases and protecting Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two largest cities.<ref name="Flight in Scotland">{{cite book |last1=Jarvine |first1=Frances, Gordon |title=Flight in Scotland |date=2009 |publisher=NMS Enterprises Limited - Publishing |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-1-905267-24-8 |page=9 |edition=1st}}</ref> The world's first aircraft carriers were based at [[Rosyth Dockyard]] in [[Fife]], where numerous trials were undertaken of aircraft landing on them. The [[Beardmore W.B.III]] aircraft was produced by the Glasgow–based [[William Beardmore and Company]], and was the first [[Royal Navy]] aircraft designed for flight operations on an aircraft carrier. Due to the scale and significance of Rosyth dockyard to war efforts, it was a prime target for Germany at the outbreak of World War I.<ref name="Flight in Scotland"/>