The Scottish Covenant Association was a non-partisan political organisation in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

in the 1940s and 1950s seeking to establish a devolved

Scottish Assembly The Scottish Assembly was a proposed legislature for Scotland that would have devolved a set list of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Labour Government led the Scotland Act 1978 through Westminster which provided for ...

. It was formed by

John MacCormick John MacDonald MacCormick (20 November 1904 – 13 October 1961) was a Scottish lawyer, Scottish nationalist politician and advocate of Home Rule in Scotland. Early life MacCormick was born in Pollokshields, Glasgow, in 1904. His father was Dona ...

who had left the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from th ...

in 1942 when they decided to support all-out

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

for Scotland rather than

devolution Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...

as had been their position. MacCormick took many supporters with him, and set up the ''Scottish Union'', which later became the ''Scottish Convention'' before eventually evolving into the Scottish Covenant Association. The name ''Covenant'' was a direct reference to the

Solemn League and Covenant The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians in 1643 during the First English Civil War, a theatre of conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. On 17 August 1 ...

signed by the Scottish Covenanters of the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1950 the organisation had offices in Glasgow. The Covenant Association played an enormous part in mobilising Scottish

public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

in favour of

. The Scottish Covenant "was eventually signed by two million people".Devolution's swings and roundabouts
BBC News 7 April 1999 Ultimately though the Association's disengagement from the conventional political process meant that this enthusiasm waned and had no outlet, with it being some 50 years before devolution was secured for Scotland. Perhaps the greatest coup of the Covenant Association was the removal of the Stone of Destiny from

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

by four of their members ( Ian Hamilton,

Kay Matheson 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 ...

Gavin Vernon Gavin Harold Russell Vernon (11 August 1926 – 19 March 2004) was a Scottish engineer who along with his accomplices, removed the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey in London on Christmas Day 1950 and took the Stone to Scotland. Background ...

and

Alan Stuart Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

) over

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

in 1950. This famous act attracted huge publicity for the cause of Scottish

home rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wi ...

References

{{Twentieth-century Scotland Politics of Scotland Home rule in the United Kingdom

See also

References