Memorial service for Winnie Ewing to be held next month after the independence icon died aged 93
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A memorial service will be held at Inverness Cathedral next month for Winnie Ewing – the former Highland MP, MEP and MSP and independence icon who died last week at the age of 93.
According to a spokesman “all are welcome” at the memorial service on Saturday, July 15, at 2pm – while a private family funeral will be held this Thursday at New Kilpatrick Church in Bearsden.
The Ewing family released a statement thanking everyone for the kind messages of condolences: “We have heard a myriad of anecdotes of happy experiences of Winnie over her long and successful time as MP, MEP and MSP. These have been of great comfort to the family.”
Ms Ewing will go down in history as the MSP who formally reopened the Scottish Parliament in 1999 as a Highlands and Islands SNP MSP.
She told the first session: "I want to begin with the words that I have always wanted either to say, or hear someone else say: 'The Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on March 25, 1707, is hereby reconvened.'”
Ms Ewing was well known before that as her election as a Westminster MP for Hamilton in 1967 was a turning point in the nationalist cause and marked the beginning of the modern SNP's later electoral success.
Winnie Ewing was born on 10 July 1929 and trained and practised as a lawyer before entering politics full-time – she joined the SNP in 1946.
She later represented Moray and Nairn at Westminster, before going on to the European Parliament where she sat from 1975 to 1999 – where she earned her famous moniker Madame Ecosse.
Then in the first elections for the Scottish Parliament she took up a place as MSP for the Highlands and Islands regional seat – before making her famous opening remarks.
In July 2001, she announced her intention to stand down as a list MSP for the Highlands and Islands ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections.
