Alex Salmond, who died on Saturday age 69, was for years the figurehead of Scottish independence, a wily political operator who divided opinion as he took the nationalist movement from the political fringes to the mainstream.

He never got to see his beloved Scotland break away from the rest of the United Kingdom, but he was making the case for the country to go its own way right to his last breath.

Salmond, who died after falling ill after making a speech in North Macedonia, stepped down as Scotland's first minister after losing the 2014 independence referendum, handing power to his deputy and one-time protegee Nicola Sturgeon.