The following speech was delivered at The Herald’s Scottish Politician of the Year Awards, where Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
In a room filled with Scotland’s political, civic and business leaders, the former Nato Secretary General was recognised not only for his decades of public service but for the global impact of his work.
Presented by The Herald editor Catherine Salmond, the tribute reflected on Lord Robertson’s journey from his childhood on Islay to the highest levels of international diplomacy. It celebrated a career that has shaped Scotland’s modern political landscape, influenced global security, and demonstrated the enduring power of public service.
What follows is the speech as delivered on the night in full - a reflection on a statesman whose legacy continues to resonate far beyond Scotland’s borders.
Ladies and gentlemen,
When we talk about Scottish political achievement, we often mean Holyrood. Or Westminster. Occasionally Brussels. Very rarely do we mean the room where the most powerful nations on earth gather to decide questions of war and peace.
Tonight, we do.
Our Lifetime Achievement Award recognises a man whose career has spanned shopfloors and union halls, cabinet tables and crisis rooms - and eventually the top of the world’s most important defensive alliance. A man who has shaped not just Scottish politics, but international security itself.
Our winner was born in Port Ellen on Islay in 1946 - proof, if it were ever needed, that extraordinary global journeys sometimes begin in the smallest corners of Scotland. His birthplace, the village police station, sat just above the pier that served as his childhood playground. It was an unconventional start but a symbolic one: rooted in community, service, and a distinctly Hebridean sense of perspective.
His childhood on Islay was, as he has written, idyllic: wide open spaces, little traffic, beaches that stretched forever, and “million-acre skies”. But it was also filled with mischief - climbing the rocks around Port Ellen pier, fishing, and exploring a world that felt vast even if he couldn’t yet swim. It was a childhood that instilled resilience, curiosity and a deep respect for place.
He grew up the son of a police officer and a languages teacher, surrounded by the rhythms of island life: Gaelic choirs, pipe bands, boats heading out from the harbour, and the ever-present smell of the distilleries that dominated the island’s economy. These distilleries were then secretive and forbidding, a far cry from the global visitor centres they would later become. Even the local fishing industry changed in his lifetime: the prawns that were once thrown away by fishermen are now sent to high-end restaurants across Europe. Islay taught him that heritage can stay rooted while still evolving - a lesson that would later shape his approach to public life.
Education cemented his foundations - and remains a huge part of his life now in his role as Chancellor of the University of Dundee.
He attended Dunoon Grammar School and Queen’s College in Dundee, which during his time broke off from the University of St Andrews to form the University of Dundee. He graduated in 1968 with an MA (Hons) in Economics, part of a minority of students who opted to take their degree from Dundee rather than St Andrews.
He was highly active in student life, writing a column in the university newspaper and taking part in organised protests. Most notably, he was among a number of students who pitch-invaded a rugby match at St Andrews against a team from the Orange Free State to protest apartheid. He also organised a 24-hour work-in at the student library to oppose proposed cuts by the government in student grants.
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Before heading to Westminster, he cut his teeth negotiating for workers in the whisky industry of his childhood - experience that sharpened both his resolve and his sense of fairness. And in 1978, Hamilton sent him to parliament, beginning more than two decades of public service as an MP.
He became a formidable parliamentarian - named Parliamentarian of the Year in 1992 - and an influential voice in Scotland’s modern political story. As Shadow Scottish Secretary, he helped shape the case for devolution. As Defence Secretary in Tony Blair’s first government, he led the landmark Strategic Defence Review, and played a central role during the Kosovo crisis, arguing that the international community had a moral duty to prevent ethnic cleansing in Europe. When he became Defence Secretary, he joked that it was the first time he’d been saluted since he was a trade union official.
During this period, in 1996, after a lone gunman entered the primary school his children (Malcolm, Rachael and Martin) had attended in Dunblane - and murdered 16 pupils and a teacher - he played a significant role in the banning of handguns.
But it was his next chapter that would define him on the world stage.
In 1999, he became the tenth Secretary General of Nato. And just two years later, on 11 September 2001, he was the person who sat at the head of the table as the Alliance confronted the worst terrorist attack in modern history.
Under his leadership, Nato did something it had never done before: it invoked Article 5 - the principle that an attack on one ally is an attack on all. It was a moment of immense gravity, taken with calm, clarity and conviction. The world was shaken; Nato was steadied.
He went on to oversee a major wave of enlargement, welcome new democracies into the Alliance, and build the Nato–Russia Council during a fleeting period of genuine dialogue. He helped steer fragile ceasefires in the Balkans and is widely credited with helping prevent a civil war in Macedonia. His work helped reshape Nato for a new century - more agile, more modern, and more prepared for the threats we now face.
These achievements earned him honours from across the globe, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom; a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George; a Knight of the Order of the Thistle; he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and has an honorary appointment as regimental colonel of the London Scottish Volunteers. But our humble winner would be the first to say that medals and honours matter less than the mission.
And to this day, he remains one of Britain’s clearest, most forthright voices on security. He has warned, consistently and bravely, that we are not as ready for crisis as we should be. He has urged governments and citizens alike to take resilience seriously. And he has done so not with fear, but with the authority of someone who has seen exactly what unpreparedness looks like.
Yet for all the global responsibilities he has carried, he has always remained unmistakably Scottish - rooted in family, in community, and in that dry, unshakeable humour that no international summit could ever knock out of him. He still lives in Dunblane with his wife Sandra, who has kept the family home for many decades. He still follows Hamilton Accies, which may be the greatest demonstration of loyalty in Scottish public life. And he still returns to Islay with a camera in hand, photographing the golden eagles he dreamt of seeing as a boy, and walking the beaches he once roamed with childlike abandon. His five grandchildren (Michael, James, Hamish, Eilidh and Hollie) are a huge source of pride and enjoyment.
A lifetime achievement award is not just a recognition of status; it is a recognition of service. And this man's service - to Scotland, to the United Kingdom, to Europe, and to the wider world - has been profound.
His life tells a very Scottish story. That you can come from a small island and influence the biggest decisions. That the journey from Port Ellen pier to the Nato Council table is not impossible. That a childhood shaped by sea, wind, whisky, music and wide skies can prepare someone for the hardest rooms in the world. And that public service, at its best, can change not only a country, but the course of international history.
It is therefore my honour, on behalf of The Herald and everyone gathered here tonight, to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to The Rt Hon Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen - a remarkable Scot, a statesman of rare stature, and a public servant whose legacy will endure for generations.
George, congratulations.
Revisit our full coverage of The Herald's Scottish Politician of the Year Awards 2025
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