Alex Salmond funeral takes place today as mourners gather to honour former first minister

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Friends and family of Alex Salmond will gather in north-east Scotland today as the former first minister is laid to rest.

The veteran politician, who twice led the SNP and helped redraw the Scottish political map during a 40-year career, died suddenly earlier this month from a heart attack aged 69.

Mourners will attend a private funeral service at Strichen Parish Church at 1pm, conducted by the Rev. Ian McEwan.

Eulogies will be given by Kenny MacAskill, the acting Alba Party leader, family friend and SNP MSP Fergus Ewing, and by Christina Hendry, daughter of Salmond's sister Gail Hendry.

A larger public memorial service is expected to take place later in the year.

Salmond was attending a political conference in North Macedonia when he suffered a massive heart attack on October 12. His body was later repatriated to Scotland on a private flight paid for by Sir Tom Hunter, the billionaire philanthropist.

The lifelong campaigner for Scottish independence was born in Linlithgow in 1954 and would first enter politics full-time when he was elected an SNP MP in 1987.

He would help transform the Nationalists from a small fringe party into a serious election-winning machine which eventually ended Labour's dominance in Scotland.

Salmond became first minister in 2007 following the party's narrow victory at that year's Scottish Parliament elections.

But it was the scale of the SNP's landslide election victory in 2011 convinced the UK Government to agree to a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, which saw Scots vote 55 per cent to 45 per cent in favour of remaining in the Union.

Salmond resigned his SNP membership in 2018 after he was first accused of sexual harassment by two civil servants.

He repeatedly denied wrongdoing and was cleared at a trial in 2020 after more women reported historic incidents of sexual assault or harassment.

Salmond went on to launch the breakaway pro-independence Alba Party, where was joined by lifelong friend and political ally Kenny MacAskill.

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Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, a close friend of the former first minister, draped a Saltire over his coffin before a military guard of honour carried his body to a private jet last week.

The former SNP MP was with Salmond at the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy conference in the city of Ohrid in North Macedonia.

"He lit up every single room, every single speech he gave, every answer to every question he gave – people appreciated," she said.

"Because he had a great way of not just delivering an answer, but with an explanation leading up to the answer so that people understood the thinking behind the man."

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