‘Gordon Wilson was crucial to creating the Scotland of today’

● John Swinney lauds former SNP leader in memorial service eulogy

is due to the foundations laid by Gordon Wilson. I am very glad he heard me say that.

“Gordon Wilson was crucial to creating the Scotland of today. We all thank Edith, Margaret, Katie and their families for enabling Gordon to make the profound contribution he was able to make.

“We hold them in our hearts as we give thanks for Gordon’s magnificent life in the service of Scotland and this great city.”

Mr Wilson worked as a solicitor before being elected as the MP for Dundee East in 1974, a seat he held until 1987.

He had worked his way up through the ranks of the party, serving as assistant national secretary from 1963 to 1964, national secretary from 1964 to 1971 and executive vicechairman between 1972 and 1973. During that time, he was a key figure in the party’s oil campaign, which coined the slogan “It’s Scotland’s oil”.

Mr Wilson took over the party’s leadership following the failed 1979 referendum on Scottish devolution and the loss of nine of the party’s 11 MPS in the subsequent general election.

The party was riven by internal conflicts in the first four years of his leadership, including over the emergence of the left-wing 79 Group and the ultra-nationalist Siol nan Gaidheal.

He presided over several poor performances in the general elections of 1983 and 1987, but the fortunes of the party began to improve, notably with the victory of Jim Sillars in the Govan by-election of 1988.

After the funeral, SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Gordon was leader of the SNP when I first joined and I will always remember him as someone with a clear sense of direction for the party.

“He led the SNP through some really difficult times and laid the foundations for the success we have enjoyed in more recent years.”

Former SNP leader and first minister Alex Salmond added: “Gordon certainly spoke his mind, but you always knew that if he said something which was contrary to party policy it was because he believed it. He wasn’t doing it to upset the apple cart.

“Today’s service captured it really well: Gordon was somebody with a really extraordinary code of belief.”

0 Edith Wilson with Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon after the service