SYDNEY ... OUR GREATEST EVER SHOWMAN
Remembering legendary star
HE was the greatest showman, and in the eyes of his many millions of fans, the closest thing Scotland had to Elvis.
Sydney Devine, revered by audiences all over the country and especially here in Glasgow at the Pavilion, died on Saturday.
Born in 1940 in Cleland in Lanarkshire, the young would-be star chose performing over following his father down the mines and at the age of 15, was talent-spotted by impresario Robert Wilson, who invited on his White Heather Club tour as a “whistler, programme seller and curtain puller.”
He spent 10 years touring and came second in a competition to find the ‘Scottish Tommy Steele’, narrowly pipped at the post by Alex Harvey.
Sydney fell in love with country and western music, and his recordings of the likes of Tiny Bubbles, The Crystal Chandelier and Blackboard of my Heart sold millions and took him to the top of the charts. He made 50 albums, presented his own show on Radio Clyde, and continued to pull in the crowds on sell-out tours.
He was about to release a new album and start another tour, when the pandemic and illness interfered.
Sydney married his sweetheart Shirley in 1958, and the couple had three children, Karen, Scot and Gary. Sadly, Gary died of sepsis in 2018.
Our photographers have captured Sydney in all his glory over the decades, following his die-hard fans and sharing in his successes. He will be sadly missed. Here is our picture tribute to him – and we would love to hear your memories of Sydney. Did you see him perform? Were you a devoted fan?
Get in touch with Times Past to share your stories and photographs of the legendary Sydney.
IT remains one of the most daring heists in British criminal history carried out by four fresh-faced students from Glasgow University. It was a crime that struck at the heart of the British establishment and threatened to derail the future coronation of the present Queen.
Those responsible faced charges of treason and their story was splashed across the front pages of the world’s newspapers.
The theft of the Stone of Destiny had taken place in London.
However, the police investigation centred on Glasgow and led in turn to one of the city’s biggest-ever security operations.
The drama first unfolded in the early hours of Christmas Day 1950.
A young police officer had spotted a Ford Anglia car outside Westminster Abbey and a young couple inside.
He approached the car and saw the pair in a passionate embrace oblivious to his presence.
The bobby knocked on the windscreen and was told they had been unable to find a room for the night and were instead making do with the car.
Convinced by their frank explanation he bid the couple good night and continued on his foot patrol.
However, the pair weren’t amorous lovers but two key members of the Stone of Destiny theft gang.
The ancient 24-stone slab of red sandstone with its two distinctive rings at either end had been taken minutes earlier from the Abbey.
However, during the theft, it broke in two and the gang were forced to load both parts into the Ford Anglia.
At that point, the bobby turned up and the couple faked a snog to distract his attention before all four made their escape.
When the theft was discovered the next day it caused an international sensation.
The Stone of Destiny, said to be an ancient coronation stone for Scots kings, had been taken by Edward I in 1296 and removed to
Westminster Abbey war.
An investigation was launched by the Metropolitan Police and the border between Scotland and England also closed off for the first time in 400 years.
The Met correctly assumed the stolen stone was heading to Scotland and contacted the Chief Constable of Glasgow Malcolm McCulloch.
He in turn decided it was a job for his best investigator, Detective Inspector William Kerr, Head of Special Branch to establish if anyone from the city was involved.
Around this time Scotland Yard also sent up two of their top detectives to liaise with their Scottish colleagues.
They were based at the Whitburn Police Training School in West Lothian for easy access to Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Kerr’s team quickly discovered the broken stone had been taken for repair to a masonry company in Sauchiehall Street owned by nationalist sympathiser Robert Gray. However, when they raided his yard it was gone.
Detective Inspector Kerr realised the gang had detailed knowledge of the Stone and the Abbey to carry out the crime.
One of the few places in Scotland that contained that information was Glasgow’s Mitchell Library.
He discovered that one man had taken out nearly every book on the subject before the theft.
That man was 25-year-old Glasgow University law student and Scottish nationalist Ian Hamilton, one part of the kissing couple.
Further investigations revealed he hadn’t been seen at his usual haunts in the city over the festive period.
It then emerged that three fellow as a spoil of students Gavin Vernon, Hamilton’s snogging partner Kay Matheson and an Alan Stuart had also been involved in the conspiracy.
They were all members of the Scottish Covenant Association, who were campaigning for a Scottish Parliament.
Hamilton was the son of a Paisley tailor, Vernon, a 24-year-old engineering student, from Aberdeenshire, Matheson, a 22-year-old trainee domestic science teacher from Inverasdale West Highlands, while Alan, from Bishopbriggs, studying civil engineering, was the youngest at 20.
Four months later the Stone of Destiny was taken from Glasgow and left at Arbroath Abbey on April 10, 1951 – where the Declaration of Scottish Independence had been drawn up in 1320.
That same evening, the Stone was brought to Glasgow under police escort and kept in the office of the Head of Glasgow C.I.D. at the Central Police Office in Turnbull Street in the Saltmarket.
There was massive newspaper interest and the Central Police Office was surrounded by the world’s Press who had their own cars waiting to follow any police cars returning the stone to London.
The plan was to transport the Stone of Destiny at dawn in a limousine with a police Jaguar escort car, via Whitburn to pick up the two Scotland Yard detectives, then head south to London.
However, the police had heard that one group of nationalists were planning to prevent the ancient relic being removed from Scotland.
It was then decided to transport the stone in the police jag and use the limo as a decoy.
Around 5.15am on Friday, April 13, 1951, the gates were opened and the police Jaguar car carrying Detective Inspector William Kerr and the Stone of Destiny sped out of the yard heading south.
At 5.20am, the limo, with a police car at the front and rear, emerged at speed and headed eastwards.
The Press cars fell in behind the three official cars not realising the stone had been switched and was already heading over the border.
On arrival at Westminster Abbey, the Stone of Destiny was put into a high-security vault for sake keeping.
After the death of King George
VI in February 1952, it was used in the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth the following year.
At the time of the theft it had been feared that any future Coronation would not be legitimate without the stone.
None of the four thieves were ever charged as it was felt that the British establishment had been caused enough embarrassment.
Sir Hartley Shawcross, the Attorney General, told the House of Commons that he had no desire to create “martyrs” or “heroes”.
After graduating from university, Hamilton had a successful career in criminal law as an Advocate and was made a Queen’s Counsel.
Vernon graduated in electrical engineering and emigrated to Canada in the 1960s. He lived in British Columbia until his death in March 2004.
Kay Matheson returned to Inverasdale and was a teacher in the local primary school until her retirement. She passed away in 2013.
Alan Stuart, the youngest of the conspirators, had a successful business career in Glasgow and died, aged 88, in 2019.
In 1996, the Stone of Destiny was returned to Scotland and can now be seen at Edinburgh Castle.
Last December, Holyrood announced it would be moved to a new museum in Perth in three years’ time.
The only time it will return to Westminster Abbey will be for future coronations.
In 2008, the incredible story was turned into a movie starring Robert Carlyle, based on a book by Ian Hamilton.
He is the sole survivor of the gang of four.
Now aged 95, the father of four lives near Oban following his retirement from the law profession.
In a rare interview he told the Glasgow Times: “I wasn’t questioned about the theft until after the stone had been returned.
“The inquiry was led by the big boys from London and the Glasgow police did not like that at all.
“One day a young Glasgow detective came to my digs about 7:30am to took me to the police HQ to be questioned by a senior detective from London and his assistant.
“I asked him the time, joking that I had lost my watch in Westminster Abbey.
“He found that very funny.
“I realised then that they (the Glasgow police) really didn’t want anything to do with this.
“The police in London were putting pressure on them, but they were having none of it.”
After the stone was returned the four finally went public over their part in the theft and became national celebrities.
Ian Hamilton, as was invited to speak
‘The inquiry was led by the big boys in London’
ringleader, at packed meetings across Scotland where he was given a hero’s welcome.
He added: “I think the reason we weren’t charged with theft was that the whole of Scotland was on our side including the police.
“I remember one senior officer said at the time: ‘We’re looking for them but not that hard.’”
IN the days before strict travel security, Arnold Øvreås was excited to see a group of footballers, in between flights, lounging around on the grass outside the terminal building of the airport where he worked.
It was Sola Airport at Stavanger, near Bergen, and it was June 1963.
The players in question were members of the Scottish national squad, heading home after losing 4-3 to Norway in a game the Evening Times described, somewhat grumpily, as, among other things, ‘a bad show’, a ‘Bergen flop’ and a ‘humiliation’.
It was a big deal, says Arnold’s son Arne, who got in touch with Times Past to share a fantastic story about his dad’s love of the game.
“Back then, Scotland had one of the best national football teams in Europe,” says Arne.
“When Norway won 4-3, we could not believe it. We were talking about that match for many, many years here, it was a sensation.”
Arne’s dad approached the Scottish players and saw Denis Law, firstly, asking him to sign his autograph on a sheet of paper.
“My father had been in England during the war, working for the Royal Norwegian Airforce as a mechanic on the Spitfires,” explains Arne, who is now 74.
“He could speak English well.
Scottish
“Some of his colleagues told him not to approach the players, warning him they might not be happy because of the defeat.
“Apparently, so my father told me, Dave Mackay, the captain, was not initially going to add his name, but Denis gave him a little kick in the backside and told him to add it.”
Denis and his teammates, including Ian St. John, Dave Mackay, Jim Baxter and Frank McLintock, all added their names to the sheet, which Arnold treasured for the rest of his life.
“My dad was a very good football player,” smiles Arne.
“As a junior he played for Brann, the best football team in Bergen.
“He escaped from