IT WAS a mission that just about achieved the impossible – four student activists’ daring night-time raid on Westminster Abbey to reclaim one of the greatest symbols of Scottish identity.
But as the young Ian Hamilton wrestled with the Stone of Destiny, trying to free it from the Coronation Chair that had held it for 650 years, there was suddenly an ear-splitting crack – the precious item split in two.
“No panic. It just made it easier to carry. I have never treated the stone as something holy . . . merely as a symbol,” said Ian.
With his partners in “crime” – Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson and Alan Stuart – Ian had ventured into the heart of the British Empire that Christmas Eve, 1950, to try to bring back the stone, which was removed in 1296 by King Edward of England.
“I was too full of adrenaline to remember much,” said Ian, now 83.
“It was a great adventure. I was a young man who had just missed action in the war by a hair’s-breadth. I was a volunteer, not a conscript. I was nearly a pilot, but I was just too young.
“Looking back, we rode our luck and were carried along by the whole breathless adventure of the thing.
“I was caught by a night watchman and had to talk my way out, and twice we had to talk our way free of the police.
“We would never have used violence, but four resolute youngsters, pressing on regardless, can achieve quite a lot. That’s what we did. We pressed on regardless.”
Adventurous and idealistic the young group may have been, but they were also taking a huge risk.
“We were risking our futures, and jail, too,” said Ian.
“We were banking on the ordinary people of Scotland supporting us. We thought it might be a forlorn hope but, as always, they supported their own.”
The term, front-page news, could almost have been coined for the media reaction to the group’s “heist”. Roadblocks thronged the border with England and reward money was put up for the stone’s return.
But Scotland was wholeheartedly in favour of the students’ actions and, after the newly repaired stone was eventually returned, they all escaped prosecution.
Ian went on to pursue a career as one of Edinburgh’s most prominent QCs. Now retired from legal life and living in Argyll, he is watching the sales of his recently re-issued book, Stone of Destiny, rising on the back of a new movie of the same name starring Robert Carlyle.
“I loved the movie,” said Ian.
“It got standing ovations at Cannes (where it wasn’t even entered in the official festival), and likewise at Toronto Film Festival, the biggest English-speaking festival in the world.”
Scotland now has the Stone of Destiny back in Edinburgh Castle, returned by the Tory Government in 1996, but what few people realise is that it’s on loan.
“I was invited to the stone’s return on loan. I refused to go,” said Ian.
“When the woman next door returns the washing she has stolen from your line you don’t drink her champagne.”
One thing that can’t be argued is that Scotland has found its confidence once more. Do we have Ian Hamilton and his gang to thank for that?
“At most, we spoke for our generation, but we hand on a better Scotland than we got from our parents.
“But there is still much to do,” said Ian. “We are the only nation who struck oil and became poorer as a result. We are a wealthy country, yet a third of us live in poverty.”
And the question we are all asking: what is Scotland’s destiny?
“Independence is inevitable,” said Ian. “Scotland is a nation.”
Stone of Destiny, by Ian Hamilton, is out now, published by Birlinn, priced £9.99.