{"id":19845,"date":"2024-11-30T13:31:25","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T13:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19845"},"modified":"2024-11-30T13:31:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T13:31:25","slug":"mourners-say-farewell-to-alex-salmond-at-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19845","title":{"rendered":"Mourners say farewell to Alex Salmond at memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alex Salmond remembered at St Giles’ memorial<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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Former First Minister Alex Salmond has been hailed as a “political genius” at his memorial service in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

High-profile figures including First Minister John Swinney and former prime minister Gordon Brown gathered at Edinburgh’s St Giles’ Cathedral.<\/p>\n

Salmond, 69, died of a heart attack while attending a conference in North Macedonia on 12 October. <\/p>\n

The St Andrew’s Day service included tributes from political allies and opponents as well as musical performances by Dougie MacLean and The Proclaimers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Salmond was buried after a private funeral service on 29 October in the village of Strichen in Aberdeenshire, where he had lived for many years with his wife, Moira.<\/p>\n

The memorial event was invitation only, with about 500 people attending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Crowds lined the Royal Mile in Edinburgh for the memorial service<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Moira Salmond was accompanied into the service by Rev Dr George Whyte <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes went to the service, as did Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay, Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Holyrood Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone.<\/p>\n

Actor Elaine C Smith, football pundit Michael Stewart and businessman Jim McColl were among the other guests.<\/p>\n

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who had a public fallout with Salmond in the years after she succeeded her ex-mentor as SNP leader, did not attend.<\/p>\n

She was at the funeral of comedian Janey Godley in Glasgow on Saturday morning, but said her thoughts were with Salmond\u2019s family and friends<\/p>\n

She described it as \u201ca very sad day for them but one that I hope will allow them to remember Alec in the way they want to\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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First Minister John Swinney and other political leaders attended the service<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Former prime minister Gordon Brown spoke with John Swinney at St Giles’ Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Salmond’s service was led by the Rev Dr George Whyte, the former Principal Clerk of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.<\/p>\n

Mr Whyte said that the ex-first minister’s life had \u201cchallenged the status quo\u201d, adding: \u201cHe called people to a cause in which he believed and for which he would endure the slings and the arrows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salmond’s niece Christine Hendry and his close friends and political allies Duncan Hamilton KC and Kenny MacAskill shared their memories of the former SNP leader. <\/p>\n

Ms Hendry described her uncle as a \u201cpolitical giant\u201d and \u201cdearly loved\u201d family member.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Alex Salmond was buried in a private funeral service near his home in Aberdeenshire <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Kenny MacAskill called him a \u201cpolitical genius\u201d, while Mr Hamilton recalled him as a “leader of courage, vision and intelligence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sir David Davis, the Conservative MP who was a close friend of Salmond’s, read a passage from John 14: \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dougie MacLean sang Caledonia, while The Proclaimers expressed their “eternal gratitude” to Salmond before performing Cap in Hand, with the lyrics: “I can’t understand why we let someone else rule our land, cap in hand.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Singer Dougie MacLean was among the guests at St Giles<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The Proclaimers were among the acts to perform at the memorial service <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Salmond remembered at St Giles’ memorial Former First Minister Alex Salmond has been hailed as a “political genius” at his memorial service in Edinburgh. High-profile figures including First Minister John Swinney and former prime minister Gordon Brown gathered at Edinburgh’s St Giles’ Cathedral. Salmond, 69, died of a heart attack while attending a conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}