25 20th century Scottish people

Andrew Blain Baird was a Scottish blacksmith and aviation pioneer.

John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator, demonstrating the world's first working television system on 26 January 1926. He also invented the first publicly demonstrated colour television system, and the first purely electronic colour television picture tube.

Starting in June 1965, Scottish man Angus Barbieri fasted for 382 days. He lived on tea, coffee, soda water and vitamins, living at home in Tayport, Scotland, and frequently visiting Maryfield Hospital for medical evaluation. He lost 276 pounds (125 kg) and set a record for the length of a fast.

Alexander Crum Brown FRSE FRS was a Scottish organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildings complex is named after him.

Alexander Hunter Crawford (1865-1945) was a Scottish architect and businessman. Closely associated with his father's firm of Crawford's Biscuits he designed many biscuit factories, and became owner of the company in 1931. Many of his villas are now listed buildings. His masterpiece is probably the huge Masonic Lodge on George Street in Edinburgh.

Archibald Joseph Cronin was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel The Citadel (1937) tells of a Scottish doctor in a Welsh mining village, who later shoots up the career ladder in London. Cronin had seen the venues as a medical inspector of mines and later as a doctor in Harley Street. The book promoted still controversial ideas on medical ethics and helped to inspire the National Health Service. Another popular mining novel of his, set in the North East of England, is The Stars Look Down. Both have been filmed, as have Hatter's Castle, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years. His novella Country Doctor instigated a long-running BBC radio and TV series, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, which was revived many years later.

Gordon Joseph Gray was a Scottish cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh from 1951 to 1985, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969. He was the first resident Scottish cardinal since the Restoration of the Scottish hierarchy in 1878 and the first since the Reformation.

James Howden was a Scottish engineer and inventor who is noted for his invention of the Howden forced draught system for steam boilers.

George Harley Hay, 14th Earl of Kinnoull, styled as Viscount Dupplin from 1903 to 1916, was a Scottish peer. His titles were Earl of Kinnoull, Viscount Dupplin and Lord Hay of Kinfauns in the Peerage of Scotland; and Baron Hay of Pedwardine in the Peerage of Great Britain.

George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works of Christian theology, including several collections of sermons.

Renee MacRae was a Scottish woman who has been missing since 1976 and is presumed to have been murdered. MacRae's disappearance, along with that of her 3-year-old son, Andrew, is currently the United Kingdom's longest-running missing persons case, and within Scotland is as notorious as Glasgow's Bible John murders. On 11 September 2019, William (Bill) MacDowell was charged with the murder of MacRae and her son. Their bodies have never been found.

Christopher Richard Markwell, is a Scottish–Canadian businessman and artist. He is the chairman and trustee of the Baird of Bute Society Trust.

The Hon. Mary Monica Maxwell-Scott was a Scottish author of historical novels and non-fiction and the great-granddaughter of the novelist Walter Scott.

Sir William Symington McCormick was a Scottish scholar and educational administrator.

William McNeill was a Scottish football player and manager. He had a long association with Celtic, spanning more than sixty years as a player, manager and club ambassador. McNeill captained Celtic's 'Lisbon Lions' to their European Cup victory in 1967 and later spent two spells as the club's manager. As a player and manager, he won 31 major trophies with Celtic.

Keith Michael Patrick O'Brien was a Scottish Catholic cardinal. He was the Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh from 1985 to 2013.

Sir William Ramsay was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" along with his collaborator, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics that same year for their discovery of argon. After the two men identified argon, Ramsay investigated other atmospheric gases. His work in isolating argon, helium, neon, krypton and xenon led to the development of a new section of the periodic table.

Lady Dorothea Louisa Ruggles-Brise, was the daughter of the 7th Duke of Atholl. She was an expert about and a collector of Scottish traditional music.

George Ian Scott CBE, FRSE, FRCSEd was a 20th-century Scottish ophthalmic surgeon who in 1954, became the first holder of the Forbes Chair of Ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh. He specialised in neuro-ophthalmology, studies of the visual fields and diabetic retinopathy. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1964 to 1967, Surgeon-Oculist to the Queen in Scotland from 1965 and President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1972.

Caroline Stuart, Countess of Seafield, styled The Countess Dowager from 1884 to 1911, was a member of the Scottish aristocracy. She was proprietor of the Seafield Estates following the death of her son in 1884 and has been described as 'The last of the great feudal chiefs'.

Frank Lewis Worthington Simon was a British architect working in the Arts and Crafts style. In Scotland, he was sufficiently noteworthy as to be commissioned by Queen Victoria to remodel Balmoral Castle In later life he worked in Canada and is best remembered for the Manitoba Legislative Building.

Cecilia Nina Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne was the mother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and maternal grandmother and godmother of Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth Millicent Sutherland, 24th Countess of Sutherland was a Scottish noblewoman. She was the holder of an earldom in the Peerage of Scotland and was chief of Clan Sutherland.

Alexander White Walker was a Scottish professional footballer who played in the Scottish League for Heart of Midlothian and Motherwell as an inside right. He also played for Brentford in the Southern League.

Colonel John Skinner "Belge" Wilson (1888–1969) was a Scottish scouting luminary and friend and contemporary of General Baden-Powell, recruited by him to head the International Bureau, later to become the World Bureau of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Wilson was Acting Director from 1938 to 1939 following the death of Hubert S. Martin; he was elected in 1939 and remained in office until 1951. He then became Honorary President of WOSM for four years.