IN WAR AND PEACE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 3 (Supplement)

IN WAR AND PEACE

The Coronation Chair

LONDON, May 25,

There seems to be an inborn passion

among youngsters of every generation to carve their initials or names on ancient oak trees or stone bridges, evidently in the hope that they will be preserved through many centuries.

It must have been with the idea of gaining immortality that scores of people, at one time or another, have carved their

initials and names on the ancient, hallowed chair in which Queen Elizabeth will be crowned “undoubted Queen of this Realm.” Although it is of hard, solid oak, the front of the chair is a mass of what are now but heiroglyphics and, so many had the same desire that they are indecipherable, with the consequence that none has survived.

Yet it is indicative of the lack of care taken to protect this great national treasure from the hands of the desecrators in centuries gone by.

It was in this chair that Queen Elizabeth I was crowned and now another Qupen Elizabeth will be the first woman to be enthroned in it for 115 years.

She will also be the first monarch to be crowned since the historic Stone of Scone was stolen from the Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950. It was'taken away (luring the hours of Christmas morning by three Scottish students, and although there was a hue-and-cry throughout the country, it was not until April 11, 1951, that the stone was found deposited in Arbroath Abbey.

Brought back to Westminster Abbey, it was hidden away in the Islip Vault, Where it remained until it was restored to’ its resting place under the Coronation Chair on February 26, 1952, —429 days after its disappearance.

Elaborate precautions have been taken •- to prevent any future interference with the Stone, and electric alarms have been installed to sound a warning in the information room at Scotland Yard, if anyone attempts its removal.

The Stone is the Coronation Stone of the ancient Scottish kings, and was preserved in the Augustinian Abbey of Scone in Perthshire until it was carried off by Edward I.

(Illustration on Page 13)