The House | Tribute to Lord Wallace of Tankerness: ‘A man of profound faith and exceptional talent’

Lord Wallace of Tankerness: 25 August 1954 – 29 January 2026 | Image courtesy of UK Parliament

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Jim Wallace was my predecessor as MP for Orkney and Shetland, having himself taken on the job from the late Jo Grimond in 1983.

His time in the House of Commons covered moments when both Orkney and Shetland hit the national headlines and when he would take his place representing the isles on national and international stages.

I first met Jim in January 1983 at a Liberal Party Burns Supper in Glasgow. I later learned that the speech he gave that evening, toasting the lasses, was typical of the man. It was well-researched, insightful, humorous with occasional flashes of mischief but managed somehow to keep his foot just the right side of the line. As a son of Dumfriesshire his knowledge of Burns was deep and impressive. His rendition of Tam O’Shanter never got stale.

He was then a fairly young advocate practicing at the Scottish Bar. Months later he would be elected to Parliament.

In 1991 the allegations of child sexual abuse in South Ronaldsay in Orkney, and then in 1993 the grounding of the oil tanker MV Braer on the south end of Shetland, put the Northern Isles on the front pages of the world’s papers for reasons that no one here would have wanted.

Both incidents led to long inquiries and significant changes in the law. On both occasions Jim saw the job through to its end, taking a full part in shaping the legislation that followed, long after the media spotlight had moved away.

Jim became a go-to fixer when coalition problems presented themselves

At a time when our political debate is often ill-tempered, Jim’s career is a reminder that to be productive our politics should allow parties to cooperate where they agree. He led the Scottish Liberal Democrats into and through the Scottish Constitutional Convention that eventually produced the blueprint for the Scotland Act of 1998. He then led us into a coalition with Scottish Labour in the first Scottish Parliament.

It was a government that had an enduring legacy, delivering change in areas such as free personal care for the elderly, which governments in the rest of the UK have struggled to achieve more than 20 years on.

When he eventually left the Scottish Parliament in 2007, he was an obvious candidate for nomination to the House of Lords. There he remained an active contributor until his death. As Lord Wallace of Tankerness he handled the chamber with consummate ease as advocate general for Scotland in the coalition government and later as leader of the Liberal Democrat Lords group.

When, in 2010, it came to negotiating the detail of the coalition agreement, Jim was the obvious first port of call. Quite apart from actual experience of government (something that was in short supply in the party after 65 years in opposition), he brought a sharp strategic brain, a senior counsel’s intellect and a good knowledge of the party. For the succeeding five years, he became a go-to fixer when coalition problems presented themselves.

Jim was a man of profound Christian faith and that informed the way in which he did his politics. For decades he was an elder of the Church of Scotland and in 2021 he was called to serve as moderator of its general assembly. He took to that role all the acquired skills of leadership, team building and advocacy learned during his career in law and politics. His tenure in a job normally held by ordained ministers was hailed as a success.

Law, politics, the kirk. Jim Wallace’s role in any one of those would be considered exceptional. That he did it in all three marks him out as something truly special. In London, Edinburgh, the isles and beyond, he will be missed.

Alistair Carmichael is Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland