Former presiding officer and journalist Sir George Reid dies aged 86

Former presiding officer and journalist Sir George Reid has died aged 86.

His death followed a diagnosis of metastatic kidney cancer at the end of June. He died in the early hours of Tuesday, August 12, at Strathcarron Hospice in Denny.

Sir George’s family said the former SNP politician had been working with students at Stirling University up until the last few weeks of his life.

Last week, after a hospital appointment, he drove through Clackmannanshire, where he was born and raised and served as MP in the 1970s and MSP from 1999 to 2007.

Obituary

Sir George Reid: Nationalist with a life of purpose beyond the political arena

The former presiding officer and journalist has died aged 86.

Sir George was presiding officer from 2003 to 2007 and concluded the final stages of the Holyrood building project.

He worked for several newspapers and in television for the BBC, Granada Television and STV.

Sir George was known for being a champion of non-tribal progressive politics.

In 2012, he was knighted for services to Scottish politics and public life.

He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Daphne, his daughter Morag, his son-in-law and five grandchildren.

Flags at the Scottish Parliament he helped to complete have been lowered as a mark of respect, current Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone announced.

First Minister John Swinney led tributes to Sir George, crediting him as being one of the voices that brought him into politics as a teenager.

“I am desperately saddened by the loss of the remarkable George Reid,” Swinney said in a statement on Wednesday.

“His passion for Scotland, his principled internationalist world view, and his empathy for the plight of people everywhere made him a voice that could not be ignored across five decades.

“As an MP, he was a trailblazing member of the SNP’s breakthrough victories of 1974. He became, for me, one of the compelling voices of the campaign for a Scottish Parliament in 1979.

“His was one of the voices that brought me into politics and kindled my belief in independence that has driven my adult life. I feel so privileged to have been shaped by his influence and inspiration.

“George was a founding member of the Scottish Parliament. More than that, after Holyrood’s difficult early years, he put aside party and provided emphatic national leadership as the presiding officer, ending the controversies over the new building and cementing the institution’s place in modern political life.

“Throughout it all, his articulation of the case for Scotland deciding her own future was as compelling to me when I sat with him in his home just four short weeks ago, as it was when I was a teenager.”

Swinney said Scotland, and the world, “is richer for the life of George Reid and poorer for his passing”.

He added: “My thoughts and deepest condolences are with Dee, his family, his many friends and all whose lives were enhanced by knowing George Reid.”

Johnstone said: “On behalf of all at the Scottish Parliament, I express our deepest sadness at the death of our second presiding officer, the Rt Hon Sir George Reid.

“He’ll be remembered not only for bringing the Holyrood construction project to completion, but for building confidence and ambition in our young Parliament.

“A proud son of Clackmannanshire and an internationalist by outlook, he was determined to put Holyrood on the map at home and abroad, and very much succeeded.

“By the time he left office, Holyrood was established at the centre of public life in Scotland and over a million people had visited to see for themselves the new Parliament in action.

“The story of devolution and the early years of our Parliament will remember George fondly and with gratitude.”

Insight Bernard Ponsonby

George Reid was a journalist, an ambassador for the Red Cross, an SNP politician, the Scottish Parliament’s second presiding officer and a champion of non-tribal progressive politics.

His career witnessed the great devolution debates of the 1970s and he had a ringside seat at some of the key events on the road to establishing the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

The home rule issue dominated his time in politics and Reid brought an always considered view to the great issues of the day.