GORDON Casely’s letter headed “Minister’s stushie over the Stone" (The Herald, January 17) brought back some long-forgotten personal memories. In 1951 I was a first-year student at Glasgow University, and remember the excitement when it emerged that the daring removal of the Stone from Westminster Abbey and its return to Scotland had been carried out by a group of Glasgow fellow students (although I never knew or met any of them).
My sentiments were mixed, however, as my father was at the time the officer in charge of the Glasgow Police Special Branch responsible for finding and recovering the Stone (not, it seems, a very difficult task, as it was being held in a Sauchiehall Street stonemason’s yard owned by a well-known supporter of Scottish nationalism).
The intriguing mystery remains, however. Is today’s Stone really the one brought back from the Holy Land, or was it replaced centuries ago and replaced by a lump of worthless Perthshire sandstone just before the English troops arrived? Does the real Stone remain buried in some unknown Scottish field where it was hidden by those who removed/stole it from its London display cabinet? Will we ever know? I doubt it.
Iain AD Mann, Glasgow G12.
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