Jim Wallace, Scotland’s first-ever deputy first minister and former leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has died aged 71, his family said. He died on Thursday while undergoing a procedure at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh after suffering complications from a scheduled major operation.
Family statement and tributes
Wallace’s family said the death was sudden. 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.”
She added: “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.”
Rosie Wallace said it “brings some comfort” that he had been “surrounded by those he loved most when he died” and that the family had been together in Scotland over Christmas when one daughter, Clare, had flown in from New Zealand.
Career and public service
Jim Wallace served 18 years in the House of Commons as the Liberal MP for Orkney and Shetland and became leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in 1992. He led the party in the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999, winning the Orkney constituency with 67% of the vote and serving as both an MSP and an MP until he stood down from Westminster in 2001.
Following the 1999 election, Wallace entered a coalition with Labour and became Scotland’s first deputy first minister. He served three times as acting first minister — during Donald Dewar’s heart surgery, following Mr Dewar’s death later that year, and again in 2001 after the resignation of Henry McLeish.
Wallace stepped down from the Scottish Parliament at the 2007 elections and was created a life peer the same year. He served as Advocate General for Scotland in the UK Government from 2010 to 2015, and was moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 2021 to 2022.
He studied economics and law at Downing College, Cambridge before studying law at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1977. He married Rosie, a speech therapist, in 1983; the couple had two daughters, Helen and Clare.
The family provided the account of his death and the details of his final days to the press. Further public statements or arrangements were not included in the family’s initial announcement.
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