Nicola Sturgeon

Her grandmother married Robert Sturgeon, a gardener from Ayr, at St Paul's Parish Church in 1943, and they both eventually moved back to the south west of Scotland.

Sturgeon grew up in Prestwick and in the village of Dreghorn, in a terraced council house, which her parents bought through the right-to-buy scheme.

Sturgeon was a quiet child and has been described by her younger sister as "the sensible one" of the two.

Sturgeon was shy and has said that she "much preferred to sit with my head in a book than talking to people".

She developed a passion for books and reading which continued into adult life.

She has described herself as being an "austere" teen whose style tended towards goth, adding that "if you see pictures of me back then, you would struggle to know whether I was a boy or a girl".

Sturgeon was a fan of Wham! and Duran Duran, and enjoyed spending Saturday nights at Frosty's Ice Disco in Irvine.

She is the eldest of two daughters born to Joan Kerr Sturgeon (née Ferguson, born 23 October 1952 ), a dental nurse, and Robin Sturgeon (born 28 September 1948 ), an electrician.

Her younger sister, Gillian Sturgeon, is an NHS worker.

Her family has some roots in North East England; her paternal grandmother, Margaret Sturgeon (née Mill), was from Ryhope in what is now the City of Sunderland.

Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023.

Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon was born in Ayrshire Central Hospital in Irvine on 19 July 1970.

Sturgeon attended Dreghorn Primary School from 1975 to 1982 and Greenwood Academy from 1982 to 1988.

In her early teens, Sturgeon joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and in 1986, at the age of 16, she became a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), quickly becoming the party's Youth Affairs Vice Convener and Publicity Vice Convener.

She joined the SNP following an assumption by her English teacher, who was a Labour councillor, she would be a Labour supporter.

In the 1987 UK General election, Sturgeon got her first taste of campaigning, going door-to-door to get her local SNP candidate, Kay Ullrich, elected to Westminster.

Despite Ullrich failing to win the seat, Sturgeon ploughed her political energy into the Young Scottish Nationalists (now Young Scots for Independence), joining its national executive when she was 17.

In an interview with the BBC's Woman's Hour, Sturgeon revealed that it was Margaret Thatcher who inspired her to enter politics, because, due to rising unemployment in Scotland at the time, she developed "a strong feeling that it was wrong for Scotland to be governed by a Tory government that we hadn't elected".

"Thatcher was the motivation for my entire political career. I hated everything she stood for."

She later studied law at the University of Glasgow School of Law, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) in 1992 and a Diploma in Legal Practice the following year.

During her time at the University of Glasgow she was active as a member of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association and the Glasgow University Students' Representative Council.

Following her graduation, Sturgeon completed her legal traineeship at McClure Naismith, a Glasgow firm of solicitors, in 1995.

After qualifying as a solicitor, she worked for Bell & Craig, a firm of solicitors in Stirling, and later at the Drumchapel Law Centre and a Money Advice Centre in Glasgow from 1997 until her election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

She has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) since 1999, first as an additional member for the Glasgow electoral region, and as the member for Glasgow Southside (formerly Glasgow Govan) from 2007.

Born in Ayrshire, Sturgeon is a law graduate of the University of Glasgow, having worked as a solicitor in Glasgow before her election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

She served successively as the SNP's shadow minister for education, health, and justice.

Sturgeon entered the leadership of the SNP but later withdrew from the contest in favour of Alex Salmond, standing instead as depute leader on a joint ticket with Salmond.

Both were subsequently elected; as Salmond was still an MP, Sturgeon led the SNP in the Scottish Parliament as Leader of the Opposition from 2004 to 2007.

The SNP emerged as the largest party following the 2007 election and Salmond headed the first SNP minority government, with Sturgeon as his deputy.

From 2007 to 2012, she served as the health secretary, overseeing the scrapping of prescription charges and the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

Following the SNP's landslide majority in 2011, she was appointed as the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Capital Investment and Cities, which saw her in charge of the legislative process for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

The defeat of the Yes Scotland campaign resulted in Salmond's resignation as SNP leader.

Sturgeon was elected unopposed as SNP leader in November 2014 and was subsequently appointed as first minister, becoming the first woman to hold either position.

She entered office amid a rapid surge in membership of the SNP, which was reflected in the party's performance in the 2015 general election, winning 56 of the 59 Scottish seats and replacing the Liberal Democrats as the third-largest party in the House of Commons.

Despite losing her majority, Sturgeon secured a second term in office in 2016, forming a minority government.

Sturgeon led the Scottish Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing a series of restrictions on social gatherings and the rollout of the vaccine programme.

A seat short of a majority in 2021, Sturgeon became the only first minister to serve a third term, and she subsequently entered a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens.

The calls from Sturgeon's government and the wider independence movement for a second referendum were unsuccessful, as successive prime ministers refused to grant a Section 30 order.

On 15 February 2023, Sturgeon resigned the leadership of the SNP; she was succeeded by her health secretary, Humza Yousaf, the following month.

The SNP continued to enjoy electoral successes throughout Sturgeon's nine years in office, but lost 21 seats in the 2017 general election.