One of the “hidden” fragments of the Stone of Scone was set into a ring that was lost or stolen shortly afterwards, it has emerged.
The ancient stone was snatched during an infamos raid in which a group of nationalist students took it from Westminster Abbey and returned it to Scotland. The stone broke in two during the heist, and was repaired in secret by a supportive stonemason named Bertie Gray, according to the Press Association.
A research project recently revealed Gray’s work may have produced around 34 fragments of the stone, also known as the Stone of Destiny, which he distributed to people around the Scottish nationalist movement. One ended up at the SNP’s headquarters after being gifted to Alex Salmond.
David Rollo is believed to have been gifted one of the fragments in 1951, which he had set into a ring. He was friends with Gavin Vernon, one of the four students who took the stone from Westminster Abbey.
Rollo died in 1997, aged 70, and his daughter Vivienne is now trying to unravel the mystery of the ring’s fate.
Her father left few clues as to what became of it, and told her the ring was either lost or stolen and that he had an idea of who had it but he would not name the person he suspected.
Vivienne, who lives in Wester Ross, told the Press Association: “I would definitely like to know what happened to it... It would be such a thing to have as a family heirloom.”
She said she believes Vernon had asked her father to join him in the fateful Christmas Day heist at the end of 1950, but he declined to take part.
“I’m pretty sure Gavin asked my dad if he wanted to come along for this,” she said. “My dad said ‘don’t be daft, you’ll never do it’.”
Rollo was called in for questioning by police in the days after the raid, as the authorities tried to recover the Stone of Destiny.
He told the police nothing and was not directly involved in hiding the artefact before it was later found by police at Arbroath Abbey in April 1951.
The missing ring is one of several stories that have emerged as a research project seeks to document the fate of the fragments from the sandstone block, which were considered “hidden” for many years.
Professor Sally Foster of Stirling University has been working to trace the stories of the fragments. She is still keen to hear from people who may have knowledge of the whereabouts of the pieces.
