Scotland's first deputy first minister dies
Lord Wallace has died following major surgery
Last updated 8 hours ago
Former Scottish deputy first minister Jim Wallace has died after suffering complications as a result of surgery, his family have said.
Lord Wallace, who served as Holyrood's first ever deputy first minister, was undergoing a procedure at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on Thursday, but died as a result of complications from what was a scheduled major operation.
His wife Rosie Wallace said: "The family are very shocked by Jim's death. It was all so sudden. He was still incredibly active in a whole host of areas."
The Scottish Lib Dems have paid tribute to him as "a towering figure of modern Scottish liberalism."
Islands' political champion
Jim Wallace was born in Dumfriesshire and educated at Annan Academy before attending Cambridge and Edinburgh universities and going into a career as a lawyer.
His parliamentary career began as the MP for Orkney and Shetland in 1983 and nine years later he was elected leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrat.
Jim Wallace led the party through the Scottish devolution referendum in 1997, having also been a member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention which created the blueprint for devolution and a Scottish Parliament.
Acting First Minister
He served three times as acting first minister, when the then first minister Donald Dewar underwent heart surgery in 2000 and later again that same year after Mr Dewar's death. He also stepped into the role again in 2001, after the resignation of Mr Dewar's successor, Henry McLeish.
He stepped down from Holyrood at the 2007 elections, the same year which he became a life peer in the Lords, going on to serve as advocate general for Scotland in the UK Government from 2010 to 2015.
He also served as the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 2021 to 2022.
Family man
His wife, Rosie, continued her tribute saying: "Jim was still going up and down to London and participating fully in the House of Lords. He was singing in the Dunblane Cathedral choir over the festive period and he was so looking forward to spending even more time with his grandchildren."
She said it "brings some comfort" that he had been "surrounded by those he loved most when he died".
And she added she was "thankful" the whole family had been together in Scotland over Christmas when Clare, one of their two daughters, and her family had flown in from New Zealand.