09-11-2022, 05:01 PM
Return to Scotland in 1996- it's being brought back for Charlie3's swearing in.
The Stone of Scone, the ancient Stone upon which Scottish monarchs had been crowned, was taken from Scone near Perth, Scotland by King Edward I of England (Longshanks) in 1296 during the Scottish Wars of Independence as a spoil of war, kept in Westminster Abbey in London and fitted into King Edward's Chair. Subsequent English and then British monarchs were crowned sitting upon the chair and Stone.
In December 1950, a few days before Christmas, the four students from Glasgow drove to London in two Ford Anglias, a journey which took them eighteen hours.[5] On arrival in London they had a brief meeting at a Lyons Corner House and decided to make an immediate attempt at removing the Stone from the Abbey. Later that day Ian Hamilton hid under a trolley in the Abbey, but was caught by a nightwatchman after the Abbey doors had been closed, briefly questioned, and then let go.
The following day Vernon and Stuart returned to Westminster Abbey and learned some information on the watchmen's shifts.[1] In the middle of that night, the three men entered a works yard and gained entrance into Poet's Corner.[1] Reaching the Chapel containing the tomb of Edward I and King Edward's Chair, they pulled down the barrier. On removing the Stone from under the Chair, it crashed to the floor and broke into two pieces. The three men, using Hamilton's coat, dragged the larger piece down the high altar steps, then Hamilton took the smaller piece to one of the cars waiting outside.
Ian Hamilton placed the small piece of Stone in the boot of the car and got into the passenger seat. As he did this, Kay Matheson noticed a policeman in the gaslight; Hamilton and Matheson immediately fell into a lovers' clinch.] The policeman stopped and the three proceeded to have a conversation even though it was 5 a.m. Having shared some jokes and a cigarette, Matheson and Hamilton drove off to Victoria, Hamilton getting out on the way to walk back to the Abbey. On his arrival, there was no sign of Vernon and Stuart, so he proceeded to drag the large piece of stone to the car himself. As he was driving away, he saw Vernon and Stuart walking towards him.
The stone was so heavy that the springs on the car were sagging, so Vernon, fearing the alarm had been raised, made his way to Rugby, Warwickshire. Hamilton and Stuart drove to Kent, hid the large piece of stone in a field and made their way back to Scotland. Matheson left her car, containing the small piece of the Stone, with a friend in the Midlands, and like Vernon made her way back to Scotland by train. On discovering that the Stone was missing, the authorities closed the border between Scotland and England for the first time in four hundred years.
A fortnight later, Hamilton and some friends recovered the two pieces and brought them to Glasgow. They hired a stonemason, Baillie Robert Gray, to mend the Stone. Gray placed a brass rod inside the Stone containing a piece of paper. To this day, nobody knows what was written on the piece of paper.
In April 1951 the police received a message and the Stone was found on the site of the High Altar at Arbroath Abbey where, in 1320, the assertion of Scottish nationhood was made in the Declaration of Arbroath. The Stone was returned to Westminster Abbey in February 1952.
The police conducted an investigation with a focus on Scotland. All four of the group were interviewed and all but Ian Hamilton later confessed to their involvement. The authorities decided not to prosecute as the potential for the event to become politicised was far too great. Sir Hartley Shawcross, addressing Parliament on the matter, said: "The clandestine removal of the Stone from Westminster Abbey, and the manifest disregard for the sanctity of the abbey, were vulgar acts of vandalism which have caused great distress and offence both in England and Scotland. I do not think, however, that the public interest required criminal proceedings to be taken."
