Stamp fanatic professor stole 3,000 items from Scotland’s national archive

Academic who died in 1987 is thought to be responsible for documents that vanished over a 30-year period

Scotland’s national archive has traced the mysterious disappearance of more than 3,000 historical documents over a period of 30 years to a history professor with an all-consuming interest in stamps.

The theft began to unravel when a National Records of Scotland archivist attended an auction in London in 1994. There, he discovered that 200 of the items for sale belonged to the archive, some still marked with their NRS reference numbers.