How Students Stole Britain’s Coronation Stone, The Stone of Scone

For more than seven hundred years, British monarchs have sat on a large block of rectangular sandstone during their coronations. This block of stone, called the Stone of Scone, or the Stone of Destiny, however, did not belong to them. It originally belonged to the Scottish people who used it during coronation of their own monarchs. In 1296, King Edward I of England invaded Scotland and stole the Stone of Scone, taking it away to Westminster Abbey, and had it fitted underneath the Coronation Chair “as a scornful symbol of Scotland's subservience to England.” Ever since then, the stone's theft has been a thorn in the side of Scottish nationalists, symbolizing England's arrogance and a deep embarrassment for Scotland at the loss of a sacred relic. A replica of the Stone of Scone in front of the Scone Palace. Credit: PaulT/Wikimedia In 1328 an attempt was made to get the Stone of Scone back with the Treaty of Northampton signed between Scotland and England, where the latter agreed to return the captured stone to Scotland. However, rioting crowds prevented the stone from being removed from Westminster Abbey. It remained in England for another six centuries until four University students stole the stone and took it back to Scotland in 1950. The brainchild behind the audacious heist was Ian Hamilton, a brash and idealistic 25-year-old law student of the University of Glasgow. His partners in crime were fellow students Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson and Alan Stuart. Hamilton’s original plan was to slip inside the abbey and hide in a dark corner just before it closed for the night and later open the door from the inside to let the others in. But he was discovered by the night watchman, who believed his story that he had been locked in, and let him go. The following night, they tried again, breaking into the abbey with the help of a jemmy. Hamilton, Vernon and Stuart got inside, while Kay waited in the car outside.