1950 heist to recover ancient Stone of Destiny

Bold plan

In May 1951, Glasgow University students – Ian Hamilton, Kay Matheson, Gavin Vernon and Alan Stewart – confessed all in a BBC radio interview about what happened that night. It all started late on Christmas Eve, when the three men broke into the abbey while Matheson waited outside in one of the getaway cars.

“The first thing we did was remove the barrier keeping the rest of the audience away from the stone,” Vernon recalls. They took the stone from under the coronation chair and placed it on the ground. Ian Hamilton’s coat became an impromptu drag mat. Vernon added: “Alan and I took an arm of the coat, and Ian took one of the stone chains. As soon as he pulled it, the stone collapsed.”

Scientific

But the victory did not last long. As they were pulling the heavy stone, it split into two parts. “I remember how terrified I was,” Hamilton admitted. “We drove 400 miles, and as we were pulling the stone, it broke.” Unbeknownst to them, nearly four decades earlier, a bomb attack on women’s suffrage may have weakened it. In the chaos, Hamilton seized the smaller object, which still weighed about 41 kg (90 lb), and rushed through the abbey carrying it like a rugby ball.

Outside, Matheson moved the car forward to warn of an approaching police officer. In moments he was in front of them. Hamilton jumped up beside her, covered the broken stone with an old coat and improvised a story about how they were two young lovers who had nowhere to go on Christmas Eve. The officer, beyond suspicion, took off his helmet, lit a cigarette, spoke amiably, and then released them.