I am saddened at the death of the onetime leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond. He will be remembered as one of the most adroit politicians of his time.

He was a contemporary of mine at St Andrews, where he was known as Alex, rather than as the ‘Alec’ that stuck in later life. He was maybe a year or two behind me. At that time, I think he was the SNP. He was certainly active in promoting its cause, though any contact I had with him then was rather fleeting.

Some years later, when John Smith was Leader of the Opposition, I was invited up to Edinburgh to do a TV debate in which several of us would put questions to Smith, himself a Scot. A few days beforehand, I was phoned up by Alex. ‘Oh Eamonn,’ he gushed, as if I were his lifetime friend — I told you, he was an adroit politician. ‘I see we are both on the panel with John Smith. It will be good to see you again and we can catch up.’

Of course, I remembered Alex’s name, but I could not put a face to it. I wasn’t sure we had even met. But I thought that, when I turned up in the studio, I would probably recognise him instantly. Unfortunately when I got there and this person in a St Andrews graduate tie rushed up to greet me, though I reasoned it must be Alex, he was to all intents and purposes a complete stranger. I don’t think he had made any impact on me, or on student politics in St Andrews, at all. But of course in the meantime, he was building the SNP into a formidable party that would eventually take office in the Scottish Parliament, despite the whole constitution of that body being written (by Labour’s Gordon Brown and his colleagues) to prevent that.

Indeed, his remarkable political and debating skills were what made the SNP and got it, and him as First Minister, into government in Scotland. When he eventually stood town, the party pretty well imploded, and he had to come out of retirement to rescue it. Only Nicola Sturgeon was later able to hold it together, though of course she and her party were eventually overwhelmed by her many faults.

After the John Smith event I met Alex many times at conference and across the floor in debates. Though I did not share his politics, such meetings were always a pleasure, and his engaging personality, interest in other people, lovely use of language and powerful intelligence shone through. But he too had his faults, which would cause him much grief and put him at odds with his party and his successor.

The last time that I met him was at a service in Glasgow Cathedral to mark the planting of an olive tree to commemorate the victims of the Arandorra Star, a ship carrying German and Italian internees during the Second World War, which was torpedoed by a German warship. He was First Minister of Scotland at the time. He gave one of the most brilliant speeches I have ever heard. It was educated, knowledgable, at times amusing, never political, and pitched absolutely perfectly to the feelings of the largely Scottish-Italian congregation and to the dignity of the occasion. 

But then, as I say, he was one of the most remarkable public figures and speakers of our time.