Westminster Abbey

This is a Magic Lantern slide dating from the late 1880s showing the Coronation Chair in St. Edward the Confessor’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. By the side of the chair are the seven-foot-long, two handed sword and the leather covered shield of King Edward III. The Coronation chair was made around 1300 to accommodate the “Stone of Scone” or the “Stone of Destiny”. The stone is a rectangular piece of red sandstone weighing 4cwt, it was the stone on which the Kings of Scotland had been crowned at Scone Palace near Perth. In 1296 King Edward I removed the stone to Westminster Abbey where it was placed under the seat of the chair. All British Monarchs beginning with King Edward II have since been crowned sitting in the Coronation Chair. The chair led a fairly uneventful “existence”, various bits fell off, were appropriated or damaged over the centuries. It doesn’t seem to be in good condition judging by the photograph. In June 1914 a militant Suffragette placed a bomb packed with nuts and bolts behind the chair, it was early evening and there were not many visitors. The bomb exploded tearing off one of the arms and damaging the back of the chair and surrounding panelling in the chapel, it was clearly meant to maim and kill. No persons were arrested except for two Danish ladies who were in the Abbey at the time of the explosion and who could not speak English, they were quickly released. At 6am on Christmas day 1950 the Westminster Abbey night watchman discovered that the “Stone of Scone” was missing from its place in the Coronation Chair. The stone had been stolen by four Scottish students with Scottish Nationalist sympathies a couple of whom had dragged the stone to the Poet’s Corner entrance and a waiting car, damaging the stone in the process. Despite a Police search and the closing of the border between England and Scotland, the first time in 400 years, there was no trace of the stone or the culprits until it was deposited at Arbroath Abbey on 11th April 1951. The stone was quickly returned to Westminster Abbey and reinstalled in the chair. The authorities discovered the identities of the four students but it was decided to take no action about what was called an act of “Vulgar Vandalism”. This is the bit where I come in, On Thursday 5th September 1974 I was on night duty and on foot patrol not far from the Abbey when a call came over the radio that the Westminster Abbey alarm had gone off, to be honest the alarm was always going off and was always a false alarm, mice or wind or whatever but on this occasion, it was the real thing. The officers first on the scene entered the Abbey and found David Carmichael-Stewart, a 24-year-old labourer who claimed to be three quarters Scottish, halfway to the exit in Poet’s Corner with the “Stone of Scone” and a homemade trolley which had collapsed under the weight of the 4cwt stone. I spent a few hours securing my part of the perimeter of the Abbey whilst it was searched for accomplices, but he was on his own. I always remember that after this the Abbey alarm still went off at regular intervals and I was always amazed that the car which usually got there first was the City of London area car, they had BMWs at the time and the Met didn’t. Carmichael-Stewart appeared at Bow Street Magistrates Court on Tuesday 22nd October and pleaded guilty to Criminal Damage for which he was given a three-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £150.00 compensation and £75.00 costs. He also apologised to the court for his actions. In 1996 the “Stone of Scone” was returned to Scotland by John Major’s Government in response to continuing Scottish pressure for some sort of devolution which eventually came after Labour was elected in 1997. The stone is exhibited in Edinburgh Castle and will return to Westminster Abbey at the next Monarch’s Coronation. The Sword and Shield can now be seen in the brand-new Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey.

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