Kay Matheson

Matheson was born in Inverasdale near Loch Ewe in 1928, to a crofting family.{{Cite web|title=Obituary: Kay Matheson, teacher|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-kay-matheson-teacher-1568530|access-date=2021-09-22|website=www.scotsman.com|language=en}} She attended the University of Glasgow, studying domestic science, and taught in both English and Gaelic.{{Cite web|title=Kay Matheson|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13112964.kay-matheson/|access-date=2021-09-22|website=HeraldScotland|language=en}} Following the Christmas Day raid she returned to Inverasdale to live with her mother, and teach locally.{{Cite news|date=12 July 2013|title=Kay Matheson - Teacher who took part in the sensational theft of the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey in the name of Scottish home rule|work=The Times}} She taught home economics, Gaelic, and physical education at Achtercairn School in Gairloch, also taught at various primary schools in Wester Ross.{{Cite web|date=2013-07-09|title=History-making Stone of Destiny raid daredevil dies in Wester Ross|url=https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/history-making-stone-of-destiny-raid-daredevil-dies-in-wester-ross-106349/|access-date=2021-09-22|website=RossShire Journal|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Kay Matheson|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10178854/Kay-Matheson.html|access-date=2021-09-22|website=www.telegraph.co.uk}} She was involved with An Comunn Gàidhealach, an organisation that promotes the teaching and use of Gaelic.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=23xAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lKMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5926%2C5443927 |title=Gaelic Youth Gain Independence. Changes in An Comunn |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=8 October 1962 |page=8 |access-date=9 January 2022}}{{cite report |url=https://digital.nls.uk/an-comunn-gaidhealach/archive/125882111?mode=transcription |title=An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Annual report (Comunn Gàidhealach) > 73rd, 1963-1964 |page=4 |website=digital.nls.uk |access-date=9 January 2022}} She ran against Charles Kennedy in the 1983 United Kingdom general election as an SNP candidate,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fMJAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_KUMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2628%2C2492906 |title=Election Results |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=11 June 1983 |page=14 |access-date=3 January 2022}} and was an active member of the party. During the 1980s she participated in the Ceartas campaign to raise the profile of the Gaelic language.

Matheson met Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon and Alan Stuart while studying in Glasgow, (all four were members of the Scottish Covenant Association), with whom she made the plan to bring back to Scotland the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey. On Christmas Day 1950, they gained access to the Abbey and removed the stone to Scotland, following which action check points were put on roads, and the border between Scotland and England closed. Matheson broke two toes during the action, and was also the getaway driver. The stone having broken in two during the raid, Matheson took one piece, leaving it with a friend in England before collecting it at a later date. A description of her car was issued, however the stone was not found for four months. Police attended her family home to question her about the theft, at which point she lied, and told them that it was in a nearby peat bog. No charges were brought against either Matheson or her fellow students. She is quoted as having said "Our recovery, not theft, of the Stone informed our whole lives."

Matheson was 22 at the time of the raid, and was not named in initial reports following the incident; she later confirmed to a newspaper by phone that she had been involved.{{Cite web|title=1951: 'We were the ones who stole the Stone of Destiny'|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/17733258.1951-we-ones-stole-stone-destiny/|access-date=2021-09-22|website=HeraldScotland|language=en}}

In 1996, the Stone was returned to Scotland, in a ceremony at Edinburgh Castle at which Matheson was present. Her obituary states that she was the only one of the four to attend, though this is disputed in the obituary of Gavin Vernon.{{Cite web |title=Gavin Vernon |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1457731/Gavin-Vernon.html |access-date=2022-09-14 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk}}

In 2000, BBC Alba broadcast a short film entitled An Ceasnachadh: Interrogation of a Highland Lass, about the police's interrogation of Matheson.{{Cite web|title=Alan Riach: What is the immediate relevance of the Gaelic tradition?|url=https://www.thenational.scot/news/19142790.alan-riach-immediate-relevance-gaelic-tradition/|access-date=2021-09-22|website=The National|language=en}} Matheson's younger self was portrayed by Kathleen MacInnes, and her older self by Dolina MacLennan.{{Cite news|date=2013-07-08|title=Woman who took Stone of Destiny back to Scotland dies|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-23225247|access-date=2021-09-22}}{{Citation|title=An Ceasnachadh (2000) - IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318987/|language=en-US|access-date=2021-09-22}} In the 2008 film Stone of Destiny she was played by Kate Mara.{{Cite journal|last=Porter|first=Lynnette|date=2010|title=The Cinematic and Historic Weight of "Stone of Destiny"|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23416319|journal=Studies in Popular Culture|volume=33|issue=1|pages=53–77|jstor=23416319 |issn=0888-5753}}

Matheson never married, and died at the age of 84, in Aultbea's Isle View Nursing Home, where she had lived for 20 years, and cared for by a relative, and former pupils. In the wake of her death, she was celebrated as a key figure in modern Scottish Nationalism,{{Cite news|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13113089.debt-scotland-owes-kay-matheson/|last=Taylor|first=Alan|date=10 July 2013|title=The debt Scotland owes to Kay Matheson|work=The Herald|access-date=3 January 2022}} by Angus MacNeil (MP) as a "feisty and funny woman",{{Cite news|last=Drainey|first=Nick|date=9 July 2013|title=Woman who helped steal Stone Of Destiny dies at 84|work=The Times}} and by Charles Kennedy, with whom she became friends after standing against him in 1983, as an "inspirational force."{{Cite news|last=Ross|first=David|date=9 July 2013|title=Charles Kennedy pays tribute to Stone of Destiny's Kay Matheson|work=The Herald}}

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Category:1928 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:20th-century Scottish women educators

Category:20th-century Scottish educators

Category:21st-century Scottish women educators

Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow

Category:People from Ross and Cromarty

Category:20th-century Scottish women writers