{{Short description|Scottish political activist, teacher, and scholar}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Kay Matheson | image = Kay Matheson.jpg | caption = Matheson in 1981 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1928|12|07|df=yes}} | birth_place = Inverasdale, Scotland | death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|07|06|1928|12|07|df=yes}} | death_place = Aultbea, Scotland | alma_mater = University of Glasgow | occupation = Teacher, political activist, Gaelic scholar | known_for = 1950 removal of the Stone of Scone }}
'''Kay Matheson''' (7 December 1928 – 6 July 2013) was a Scottish teacher, political activist, and Gaelic scholar. She was one of the four University of Glasgow students involved in the 1950 removal of the Stone of Scone.
== Life == Matheson was born in Inverasdale near Loch Ewe in 1928, to a crofting family.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=Obituary: Kay Matheson, teacher |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-kay-matheson-teacher-1568530 |first=Phil |last=Davison |date=9 July 2013 |access-date=15 November 2025 |work=The Scotsman |language=en-GB}}</ref> She attended the University of Glasgow, studying domestic science, and taught in both English and Gaelic.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=Kay Matheson |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13112964.kay-matheson/ |date=9 July 2013 |access-date=16 November 2025 |website=HeraldScotland|language=en |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Following the Christmas Day raid she returned to Inverasdale to live with her mother, and teach locally.<ref name=":2">{{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}}</ref> She taught home economics, Gaelic, and physical education at Achtercairn School in Gairloch, also taught at various primary schools in Wester Ross.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |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=9 July 2013 |work=RossShire Journal |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240115070555/https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/history-making-stone-of-destiny-raid-daredevil-dies-in-wester-ross-106349/ |archive-date=15 January 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{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}}</ref> She was involved with An Comunn Gàidhealach, an organisation that promotes the teaching and use of Gaelic-<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> and in 1979 they made her an honorary vice-president.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lPY9AAAAIBAJ&pg=5586%2C1916536 |title=Four are honoured |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=9 October 1979 |page=8 |access-date=15 November 2025 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> She ran against Charles Kennedy in the 1983 United Kingdom general election as an SNP candidate,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fMJAAAAAIBAJ&pg=2628%2C2492906 |title=Election Results |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=11 June 1983 |page=14 |access-date=3 January 2022 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> and was an active member of the party.<ref name=":4" /> During the 1980s she participated in the Ceartas campaign to raise the profile of the Gaelic language.<ref name=":2" />
== Christmas day raid == 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.<ref name=":2"/> 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.<ref name=":0" /> Matheson broke two toes during the action, and was also the getaway driver.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> A description of her car was issued, however the stone was not found for four months.<ref name=":4" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> No charges were brought against either Matheson or her fellow students.<ref name=":0" /> She is quoted as having said ''"Our recovery, not theft, of the Stone informed our whole lives."''<ref name=":1" />
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.<ref>{{Cite news |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/ |first=Russell |last=Leadbetter |work=The Herald |language=en-GB |date=27 June 2019 |access-date=15 November 2025}}</ref>
In 1996, the Stone was returned to Scotland, in a ceremony at Edinburgh Castle at which Matheson was present.<ref name=":1" /> Her obituary states that she was the only one of the four to attend,<ref name=":4" /> though this is disputed in the obituary of Gavin Vernon.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
== In popular culture == In 2000, BBC Alba broadcast a short film entitled ''An Ceasnachadh: Interrogation of a Highland Lass,'' about the police's interrogation of Matheson.<ref>{{Cite news|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/ |author-link=Alan Riach |date=8 March 2021 |access-date=15 November 2025|work=The National|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00g8hg5 |title=An Ceasnachadh |publisher=BBC |access-date=15 November 2025}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> Matheson's younger self was portrayed by Kathleen MacInnes, and her older self by Dolina MacLennan.<ref>{{Cite news|date=8 July 2013|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=22 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=An Ceasnachadh (2000) - IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318987/|language=en-US|access-date=2021-09-22}}</ref> In the 2008 film ''Stone of Destiny'' she was played by Kate Mara.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
== Death == 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.<ref name=":3" /> In the wake of her death, she was celebrated as a key figure in modern Scottish Nationalism,<ref>{{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}}</ref> by Angus MacNeil (MP) as a ''"feisty and funny woman",''<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/scotland-travel/woman-who-helped-steal-stone-of-destiny-dies-at-84-hz6s2ksrflh |last=Drainey|first=Nick|date=9 July 2013|title=Woman who helped steal Stone Of Destiny dies at 84|work=The Times |access-date=15 November 2025}}</ref> and by Charles Kennedy, with whom she became friends after standing against him in 1983, as an ''"inspirational force."''<ref>{{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}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.gairlochmuseum.org/kaymatheson Kay Matheson] at Gairloch Museum
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matheson, Kay}} 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