As a businessman, sportsman and Inverness councillor, Jim Crawford was known as a champion for his community.
Born in Glasgow in 1943, Mr Crawford trained as a chiropodist at Glasgow University before starting his working life in Gloucester.
It was in the cathedral city in the west of England that he met his wife Ros, to whom he was married for 53 years.
The couple moved to Inverness in 1973, and Mr Crawford started his own chiropodist practice in Farraline Park, before moving to St Stephen’s Brae.
He ran the practice for 47 years, until his death on September 13 at the age of 77.
Alongside his wife, Mr Crawford also founded and ran Invernairn, a successful smoked salmon company in Nairn.
He was an avid field sports enthusiast, starting the Black Isle Wildfowlers Club and co-founding the Highland Field Sports Fair.
One of his great pleasures was the small shoot he ran with friends.
His sporting prowess was also notable in his younger days, when he played for Hereford United under coach Jock Wallace.
Mr Crawford’s interest in politics led him to found the Countryside Party in 2000 – an offshoot of the Countryside Alliance – which led fierce opposition to the UK Government’s moves to ban fox hunting with hounds.
The party fought on rural issues in the 2003 Scottish Parliament elections for the Highlands and Islands region.
Mr Crawford went on to be elected as councillor for the Inverness South ward, which he served from 2007 to 2017.
Inverness South councillor Duncan Macpherson described Mr Crawford as a true Highland gentleman.
He said: “He was a good and effective councillor.
“I knew him during my time as a community councillor and he was always a great support to us.”
Highland Council’s convener Bill Lobban said he was a man who always stood up for his community.
“He will be sorely missed not just by his family and friends, to whom I extend my deepest sympathy, but also the wider community as they have lost a really stalwart supporter.”
Inverness provost Helen Carmichael said she owed her election as the city’s first provost to Mr Crawford’s support.
“I was immensely privileged when in 2015 Jim helped make history and seconded the nomination by councillor Margaret Davidson to elect me as the first female provost of Inverness.”
A devoted family man, Mr Crawford is survived by his wife Ros, children Jane and Stuart, and three grandchildren, Holly, Isla, Calvin.
