Four Students Broke Into Westminster Abbey to Steal a Stone
[!NOTE] Historical File: Four Students Broke Into Westminster Abbey to Steal a Stone Location: UK | Era: Archival History | Format: Documentary & Narrative Record
The Untold Story
Four students broke into Westminster Abbey to steal a coronation stone. It was Christmas 1950.
England’s King Edward the First had carried it off from Scotland in 1296.
As they pulled it from under the Coronation Chair, it crashed to the floor and broke in two.
Outside, a policeman found a couple embracing in their parked car. He chatted with them, never knowing a piece of the stone was in the car.
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They hid the larger piece in a field in Kent and slipped home to Scotland.
A Glasgow stonemason mended it. In April 1951, it turned up in a ruined abbey in Scotland.
Four students took the stone, and none of them was ever prosecuted. Follow for more heists like this.
Historical Discussion
💭 A policeman chatted with two of them while a piece of the stone sat in their car. Would you have kept a straight face?
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Verified Archival Sources & Bibliography
Every claim in this account has been fact-checked against primary archives and scholarly repositories:
- University of Glasgow Avenue: The daring capture of the Stone of Destiny (primary)
- University of Glasgow Story: Alan Stuart biography (primary)
- Edinburgh Castle (Historic Scotland): Stone of Destiny (primary)
- The Telegraph: Gavin Vernon obituary (2004) (news)
- The Telegraph: Ian Hamilton on Stone of Destiny (2008) (news)
- CBC As It Happens: Ian Hamilton and the Stone of Destiny (news)
- KentOnline: How the coronation stone ended up hidden in a Kent field (news)
- Glasgow Police Museum: The Stone of Destiny - 1950 (primary)
- The Scottish Banner: The Christmas theft of the Stone of Destiny (news)
- Wikipedia: 1950 removal of the Stone of Scone (reference)