Reflecting on St Andrews Alumnus And Scottish Politician Alex Salmond's death at 69

Alex Salmond, who steered Scotland to the brink of independence and transformed the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), has died at 69.

Tributes poured out across the political spectrum. The University of St Andrews called him “a huge figure in Scottish and UK public life.” First Minister John Swinney said he “inspired a generation to believe in Scottish Independence” who “took the SNP from the fringes of Scottish politics to the heart of government.”

Born in Linlithgow, West Lothian, he attended the local school before embarking on his undergraduate degree of Economics and Medieval History at the University of St Andrews. He lived in Andrew Melville Hall and became vice-president of the Student Representative Council.

It was in St Andrews where he first joined the SNP after an argument with his then-English girlfriend Debbie Horton. She was secretary of the St Andrews Labour Club and told him, “If you feel like that, go and join the bloody SNP.” He did the next day. 

The St Andrews Federation of Nationalist Students was a sparse movement in the 1970s. Alex Salmond and his friend, Tony Lawson, were the only fully paid members, and naturally were elected president and treasurer. A contemporary, Brian Taylor, remembered Salmond behaving as a “mischief maker” as well as “brilliantly focused.” Salmond said in 2009, “St Andrews is a very Anglicised university, a very socially select university, and so I went as a kind of Scottish Punter because I wanted to demonstrate something.” He graduated in 1978 with a 2:2.

After briefly working as an economist for the Government Economic Service and the Royal Bank of Scotland, he followed his ambition to see an independent Scotland. He stood on the left of the SNP, starting by joining the 79 Group, a socialist republican organisation. In 1987, he was elected MP for Banff and Buchan, a seat he would maintain for the next 23 years. He became SNP leader by 1990 and began to steer the party in a gradualist pro-independence direction. He was generally anti-war, criticising the 1999 bombing of Serbia and the 2003 Iraq invasion. He stood down as SNP leader in 2000, yet ran again in 2004 and saw the SNP win its first, though very slim, majority in 2007. This led to Alex Salmond’s premiership as First Minister of Scotland from 2007-2014. In this time, he dealt with the Glasgow Airport attacks, the 2009 global recession, and drove Scotland towards its renewable future. He was re-elected in 2011 and promised with a larger majority to hold an independence referendum. This would become his ultimate legacy, yet not in the direction he had wished: in 2014 the Scottish people voted ‘No’ to independence with 55.3 per cent of the vote.

Following his disappointment, he resigned as First Minister. He continued his role in politics as MP for Gordon yet lost his seat in 2017. He had a broadcasting role in RT (Russia Today) facing criticism from his former Scottish colleagues. In 2018, it was revealed by the Daily Record that he had received allegations of sexual assault. He was charged with fourteen offences and acquitted of every charge in March 2020. 

In his final years, he attempted a final political project: leading the Alba Party for the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections. The party did not win any seats in either parliament. 

He died on a trip where he spoke at the Gjorge Ivanov School for Young Leaders in North Macedonia. His family left a tribute saying he was “a devoted and loving husband, a fiercely loyal brother, a proud and thoughtful uncle, and a faithful and trusted friend." 

“He dedicated his adult life to the cause he believed in — independence for Scotland.”

His family said they would continue his efforts for independence, echoing Salmond’s words following his 2014 resignation “the dream will never die.”

Photo from WikiCommons