Bringing Peterhead trawler tragedy victims home was Alex Salmond's proudest achievement

The widow of a Peterhead fisherman who died in one of Scotland's worst trawler tragedies has heard how returning the men who perished to their families was Alex Salmond's proudest moment.

Shirley Henderson became emotional when the former First Minister’s long-time friend, lawyer Duncan Hamilton, recalled the story to the 500-strong congregation at his memorial service.

Salmond battled to raise the sunken Sapphire from the seabed off Peterhead in 1997 and bring the bodies of four trawlers back home, writes the Daily Record.

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Hamilton said: "In 2017 he gave an interview I discovered the other day which I want to share. He said this, ‘If I go to the Pearly Gates and my maker says, ‘What did you ever do with your life as an MP and all the rest of it?’ I might well say, ‘I helped raise the Sapphire.’"

"Alex led the campaign to have the Sapphire raised and the deceased returned to their families. The point is this – he understood that politics is about people and that at its core it is about community."

Shirley’s husband, Robert Stephen, 24, died alongside Adam Stephen, 29, Bruce Cameron, 32, and Victor Podlesny, 45, on October 1, 1997.

The UK government refused to finance the recovery of the bodies, but undeterred, Salmond, then MP for Banff and Buchan, spearheaded a campaign to raise £600,000 for the ship to be lifted and the bodies returned to their families.

Shirley, now 51, told how she was incredibly touched to be invited to the memorial. She said: "We are all grateful for what Alex achieved for us as a family.

"He provided peace for the families, dignity for our boys and a place to take our children. It was an honour to be invited. He achieved miracles for us."