User:Scott MacDonald/Theft of the Stone of Destiny

The theft of the Stone of Scone was a the removal in 1950 of the ancient Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey. The theft was carried out by a group of Scottish students (Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson, and Alan Stuart), intent on making a political gesture of Scottish independence, by returning to Scotland an artefact removed in the 14th century and associated with coronations.

The theft
On Christmas Day 1950

Execution
In the process of removing it from the Abbey, the students discovered the stone was broken and probably had been for hundreds of years. After hiding the greater part of the stone with travellers in Kent for a few days, they risked the road blocks on the border and returned to Scotland with this piece, which they had hidden in the back of a borrowed car, along with a new accomplice John Josselyn. The smaller piece was similarly brought north a little while later. This journey involved a break in Leeds, where a group of sympathetic students and graduates took the fragment to Ilkley Moor for an overnight stay, accompanied by renditions of "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at". The Stone was then passed to a senior Glasgow politician who arranged for it to be professionally repaired by Glasgow stonemason Robert Gray.

Aftermath
A major search for the stone had been ordered by the British Government, but this proved unsuccessful. Perhaps assuming that the Church would not return it to England, the stone's custodians left it on the altar of Arbroath Abbey, on 11 April 1951, in the safekeeping of the Church of Scotland. Once the London police were informed of its whereabouts, the Stone was returned to Westminster. Afterwards, rumours circulated that copies had been made of the Stone, and that the returned Stone was not in fact the original.

Ian Hamilton spoke of the removal and damage of the stone as recently as the 26 July 2009 at The Gathering 2009 in Edinburgh.