By Iwan Stone and Cameron Roy Published: 12:28 EDT, 12 October 2024 | Updated: 12:43 EDT, 12 October 2024

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has died aged 69.The Alba Party leader reportedly died after giving a speech in North Macedonia. Salmond led the Scottish Nationalist Party between 1990 and 2000, and then again between 2004 and 2014.He was a prominent figure in the country’s fight for nationalism, and lead the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.He resigned after the ‘Yes Scotland’ campaign was defeated, forming the Alba party in 2021.Salmond, the first SNP politician to serve as First Minister, was elected in 2007 on a minority government before winning the only Holyrood majority in 2011.  Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has died aged 69. Pictured: In September 2024 Pictured: On the last day of campaigning for the UK General Election in JulyThe first SNP politician to serve as First Minister, he was elected in 2007 on a minority government before winning the only Holyrood majority in 2011. Over the course of his career he took the SNP from the fringes of Scottish politics in the 1980s to the most dominant party in the country. Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond was born in Linlithgow on Hogmanay in 1954, the second of four children to Robert Fyfe Findlay Salmond and Mary Stewart Salmond.His parents were civil servants, and have been described as ‘small n’ nationalists: people who were proud of Scotland, its history and traditions, but did not necessarily support independence.As a schoolboy he stood for classroom election – campaigning to replace the school milk with ice cream.He also realised he had a knack for public performance when he became a boy soprano.In 2011 he told Desert Island Discs he ‘never suffered nerves as a boy’ and said: ‘If you can sing in front of thousands of people when you’re ten or 11 then being Scottish First Minister is nothing in comparison.’After school Salmond studied a joint degree in economics and history at the University of St Andrews. Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and Scotland fans are pictured in Munich as Scotland got ready to compete in the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, in June ALBA Party leader Alex Salmond launching the ALBA Lothian campaign for the Scottish Parliamentary election in AprilAt university in 1973 he had a row with his English girlfriend who was the secretary of the St Andrews University Labour Club over the party’s commitment to Scotland.She reportedly told him: ‘If you feel like that, go and join the bloody SNP.’Salmond quickly did.After graduation he followed his parents into the civil service and became an assistant economist in the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland in 1978.In 1980, he began his seven-year career with the Royal Bank of Scotland as an assistant economist before being appointed oil economist in 1982 and royal bank economist in 1985.While there his boss was Moira McGlashan who was from a traditionally conservative background. Although she was 17 years his senior at 43, the couple were married in 1981.This is a breaking news story. More to follow. 

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Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond dies aged 69