Daughter Launches Appeal to Find Father's Lost Ring with Stone of Destiny Fragment
Viv Rollo is making a heartfelt public appeal for assistance in tracing the whereabouts of her late father's distinctive ring, which astonishingly contains one of the long-hidden fragments of the historic Stone of Destiny. This remarkable piece of jewellery was lost or stolen decades ago, and its recovery would represent the retrieval of a priceless family heirloom intertwined with a legendary chapter of Scottish nationalist history.
The 1950 Heist and the Creation of Hidden Fragments
The extraordinary story begins with the famous Christmas Day raid in 1950, when a group of nationalist students successfully removed the ancient Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and transported it back to Scotland. During this audacious operation, the sandstone block broke into two pieces. In the aftermath, a supportive stonemason named Bertie Gray secretly repaired the artefact.
Recent academic research has revealed that Gray's repair work likely resulted in the creation of approximately thirty-four small fragments from the original stone. These precious slivers were then distributed among individuals connected to the Scottish nationalist movement of the time. One such fragment famously ended up at the headquarters of the Scottish National Party after being presented to former First Minister Alex Salmond.
David Rollo's Connection and the Mysterious Ring
Viv Rollo's father, David Rollo, is believed to have received one of these historic fragments as a gift in 1951. He subsequently had the fragment expertly set into a ring featuring an intricate Celtic design with three distinctive points, likely crafted from silver or a similar precious metal. David Rollo was closely connected to the central figures of the stone's theft, sharing student accommodation in Glasgow with Gavin Vernon, one of the four students who executed the Westminster Abbey heist.
Ms Rollo recalled her father's account of being asked to participate in the raid, stating he told Vernon, "don't be daft, you'll never do it." Although he declined to take part, David Rollo was questioned by police in the days following the theft as authorities scrambled to recover the national symbol. He revealed nothing to the investigators and was not directly involved in concealing the stone, which was eventually discovered at Arbroath Abbey in April 1951.
A Family Mystery and a Public Appeal
David Rollo, who passed away in 1997 at the age of seventy, left few concrete clues about the ring's ultimate fate. He told his daughter only that the ring had been either lost or stolen shortly after he acquired it, and that he had suspicions about who might have taken it, but he refused to name the individual. "He said he knew who had taken it but he couldn't prove it. Obviously you wouldn't want to accuse one of your friends about something like that," Viv Rollo explained from her home in Wester Ross.
Now aged seventy herself, Ms Rollo is determined to solve this family mystery. "I would definitely like to know what happened to it," she told the Press Association. "It would be such a thing to have as a family heirloom." The ring vanished before her father's marriage in 1956, adding to the decades-long enigma.
Academic Research into the Fragments' Whereabouts
The search for David Rollo's ring forms part of a wider academic endeavour to document the fate of all the Stone of Destiny fragments, which remained largely hidden from public knowledge for many years. Professor Sally Foster of Stirling University is leading a research project dedicated to tracing the stories and current locations of these historic pieces.
Professor Foster remains keen to hear from anyone who may possess information about the whereabouts of any fragments, including the one set into the missing Rollo family ring. The Stone of Destiny, used for centuries in the coronation ceremonies of Scottish and later British monarchs, continues to captivate historians and the public alike, with each fragment representing a tangible piece of national heritage and a dramatic historical narrative.
