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The Old Fox: Case Files · Episode 5
The students who took the Stone of Scone back to Scotland
How do you steal a stone that weighs as much as two grown men? Carefully.
Christmas 1950: four Glasgow students drag the Stone of Scone out of Westminster Abbey on a coat. It breaks in two, the border is closed, and it turns up months later at Arbroath Abbey. Nobody was prosecuted.
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What the fox said
How do you steal a stone that weighs as much as two grown men? Carefully. Let's see what's on.
Christmas, 1950. Westminster Abbey, London. Beneath the Coronation Chair sits the Stone of Scone.
Edward the First took it from Scotland in twelve ninety-six. Four Glasgow students decide to take it back.
Their leader, a law student called Ian Hamilton, hides inside the Abbey. A night watchman finds him, and lets him go.
The next night they're back. They force a door, and drag the stone out from under the chair, on a coat.
It weighs a hundred and fifty-two kilos. And on the way out, it breaks in two.
A policeman wanders up. Two of them pose as a courting couple.
Roadblocks go up on the border. Reportedly the first time it had been closed in four hundred years.
It hides in a field in Kent, then a Glasgow stonemason quietly mends it.
On the eleventh of April, 1951, it turns up in the ruins of Arbroath Abbey, draped in a Saltire.
It's taken straight back to Westminster. And the students? Nobody was ever prosecuted.
The Attorney General decided it simply wasn't in the public interest.
In 1996, it was finally returned to Scotland.
Forty-six years. The slowest Christmas delivery ever. Case closed. Keep your nose to the wind.
Sources
- In the early hours of Christmas Day 1950, four Glasgow University students removed the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey (Historic Environment Scotland; University of Glasgow).
- The stone, which weighs 152 kg, was taken to Westminster by Edward I in 1296 (Westminster Abbey).
- One of the students was found by a night watchman on a first attempt and let go; the group returned the next night, and the stone broke in two as it was dragged out (Historic Environment Scotland; University of Glasgow).
- Roadblocks were set up on the border with England, reportedly for the first time in 400 years (University of Glasgow; Wikipedia, '1950 removal of the Stone of Scone').
- The stone was hidden in a field in Kent, repaired by a Glasgow stonemason, and turned up on 11 April 1951 at the site of the high altar of Arbroath Abbey, draped in a flag (Police Scotland museum; University of Glasgow; Historic Environment Scotland).
- No one was prosecuted; the Attorney General, Sir Hartley Shawcross, said a prosecution was not in the public interest (Wikipedia, '1950 removal of the Stone of Scone'; Boston Globe).
- The stone was returned to Scotland in November 1996, lent back for the 2023 coronation, and is now displayed at Perth Museum (Westminster Abbey; Historic Environment Scotland).
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