The funeral of Alex Salmond was held in Strichen Parish Church, near his Aberdeenshire home, on the afternoon of Friday 18 March. The private ceremony, attended solely by family and close friends, was led by the Reverend Ian McEwan, a long-standing friend of the Salmond family. Eulogies were given by Acting Alba Party Leader, Kenny MacAskill, former SNP Cabinet colleague, Fergus Ewing, and Salmond’s niece, Christina Hendry. In a statement, the family thanked Sir Tom Hunter, a Scottish businessman, for the private flight he had provided to repatriate Salmond’s body from North Macedonia, where he had died of a heart attack whilst attending a conference held by the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy.
First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, submitted a motion of condolence to the Scottish Parliament, but did not attend the service in line with the wishes of the family. A spokesperson for Swinney said: “The thoughts of the first minister and the Scottish government remain with the family and friends of Mr Salmond.” In 2017, Reverend McEwan led the funeral service for Salmond’s father, Robert. Speaking about Salmond at Friday’s service, he highlighted that Salmond was an ebullient and confident figure in public, but also a “remarkable people person” who deeply cared about ordinary people. McEwan added that Salmond’s unexpected death in North Macedonia added “a layer of complexity” for the family.
Despite the fact that, earlier in his career, Salmond had been a political opponent of Swinney and of the current Scottish government, many senior politicians, across a wide range of parties, paid tribute to Salmond following his sudden death on 11 March. Scottish Conservative Party leader, Douglas Ross, described him as a “talented politician”, whilst Scottish Labour Party leader, Anas Sarwar, called him “a giant of Scottish politics”. Following the funeral, MSPs from across all political parties in the Scottish parliament paid tribute to Salmond during a debate on the motion of condolence put before them by the First Minister.
In addition to his political career, Salmond was a highly successful economist, journalist, and historian and, in later years, was particularly well-known as a broadcaster, mainly in programmes related to nature and the countryside. In this capacity, he was often called upon to highlight the many threats posed to Scotland’s rural economy, customs and way of life
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