Message #118677

[Bianca]

To understand the raid's significance, one has to recall the political climate of the time. Fresh from the privations of war, and with a new welfare state, Britain at the dawn of the Fifties was a cohesive nation, and the idea of devolution had little currency. Support for the Scottish National Party stood at 0.7 per cent; Labour had withdrawn the commitment to Home Rule from its manifesto; and the Conservatives were at the high point of their electoral history north of the border.

"I wanted to waken the Scots up, that was all,'' says Hamilton. He could never remember a time when his imagination hadn't been fired by the Stone. His mother had told him the tale when he was eight and, at the back of his mind, he always hankered to be the man who brought it home.

Soured by the lack of patriotism shown by his countrymen, he decided to do just that. He enlisted the help of Gavin Vernon, Alan Stuart and Kay Matheson and, with a £50 note from SNP leader John MacCormick in Hamilton's pocket, the four drove to London in two cars on Christmas Eve. ''It took 20 hours and there were no heaters in cars then,'' Hamilton recalls.

He knew the best way to break in was by a door at the east end which was made of pine rather than stout oak. He had discovered this on an earlier trip, when he had been chanced upon by a security man who, thinking him homeless, gave him half a crown. ''I've always felt a bit guilty about that but I couldn't blow my cover,'' Hamilton says ruefully.

With Kay at the wheel of one of the get-away cars, the trio pulled and tugged at the Stone but were unable to free it. When they did it toppled over and smashed in two. ''People always think I must have been horrified,'' Hamilton laughs. ''But it made it easier to carry.''