A SCOTTISH flag has been “ripped from the railings” of a William Wallace memorial in London, The National can reveal.
Henry Tapper, an Englishman who runs the AgeWage blog, revealed that a Saltire was taken off the railings in front of the plaque outside St Bartholomew's Hospital.
In a post titled “The saltire yet rests with Wallace where he died”, Tapper said: “My story begins yesterday lunchtime when I embarked on a short run around the Western boundaries of the City of London. It was raining heavily. As I jogged up the Old Bailey, I spotted something blue drowning in an oily puddle in the gutter. I ran on but then thought better and returned. There was a flag in the puddle, pulling it from the water I saw the saltire and – drenched though it was, I carried it home.
“I dried the flag out and early this morning I ran on to the Wallace memorial outside St Barts hospital.
“As I suspected, the flag of Scotland was absent, the flag showed tears where it had been ripped from the railings but the ties were still attached to the railings.”
READ MORE: Community ownership call for Monument to 'protect legacy of William Wallace'
Tapper, who travels to Perthshire every year, reattached the flag to the railings.
The National understands the flag was not originally part of the memorial and was added by a member of the public.
Barts Health NHS Trust, who is responsible for the memorial refused to comment.
Gary Stewart, the convenor Society of William Wallace told The National: “It’s brilliant to see Henry Trapper showing a great interest in the Wallace monument, going out his way to get a saltire put up to Scotland’s greatest hero and taking time to write a blog on his experience.”
“It does England no good to desecrate Wallace’s memorial and treat the flag of Scotland in this way,” Tapper went on. “On behalf of Englishmen and women, I apologize for what has been done to your flag and ask you to believe that we are better than that.”
The monument has been outside the hospital since 1956 to mark the site of the execution of William Wallace.
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