The Bungled Kidnapping of Princess Anne

The Kidnapping Attempt

The streets of London were far from enticing on the 20th of March 1974. Barely a dot of blue could be seen in the sky, with all but the faintest traces of it having been shrouded by a thick blanket of dark grey clouds. These clouds had been lingering in the sky for many weeks, unleashing an oft-interrupted but never fully dispelled drizzle that soaked through coats, seeped into shoes, and left everything glistening with a damp sheen. This had left the city’s cobbled streets pockmarked by puddles, their clear reflections of the dreary sky above frequently distorted by the recurring sprinkle, which made them ripple under its inescapable touch.

It was amidst this dreary scene that Princess Anne went about her day, a day that, despite nature’s best efforts, had started off remarkably well indeed; ribbons had been cut, hands had been shaken, and members of the public had been schmoozed with – things couldn’t have been going better.

As for her final engagement of the day, that wasn’t anything too fancy; just a showing of the short film Riding Towards Freedom, which had recently been produced by the charity Riding for the Disabled. But as Anne herself was both a very enthusiastic equestrian and patron of this charity, it was the highlight of her day. She was surrounded by friends, helping a good cause, and getting to indulge her passions to boot – what wasn’t to enjoy?

But unfortunately for her, those dark clouds that had drifted over her head all day were not just irksome, but were in fact prophetic; the harbinger of a wicked storm that would soon sweep through her life – not that Anne knew that as she left Sudbury House, where the event had taken place, a little after 7:30pm, and climbed into the back of her Austin Princess Limousine, bound for Buckingham Palace.

Behind the wheel was a man by the name of Alex Callendar, and he was a very experienced driver thanks to having spent the last 20 of his 55 years on earth plying the trade for Buckingham Palace. Thanks to this experience, he was a human sat nav of a man, and knew exactly where he was heading; to the end of Newgate Street, down Fleet Street, a left into The Strand, over Trafalgar Square, and then down The Mall till the big fancy house makes itself apparent; easy – no more than 20 minutes even when the pace was being dictated by the gentle press of Alex’s professional right foot.

He set off, and with the mood in the car being very much one of casual professionalism, gentle conversation soon enough filled its spacious cabin. Alex turned to his left and chatted with Detective Inspector James Beaton, who was there in his capacity as Princess Anne’s official bodyguard, and similarly, Anne struck up a conversation with Rowena Brassay, her Lady in Waiting, who sat immediately in front of her on a folding seat bolted to the partition, and to her side sat her then husband Mark Phillips – who flicked his attention between taking in the well-familiar but no less enticing sights of Old London Town, and interjecting sporadically into his wife and Rowena’s conversation.

They all knew each other well enough at that point, so as they pushed their way through London’s historic streets, heads turned in all directions and a criss-cross of conversation then followed – the dynamic among the well-acquainted ensemble being one of a chatty cabbie and his punters rather than courtiers and their attendants.

But that jovial atmosphere was shattered in an instant when, out of nowhere, just as they were heading down The Mall and were not even a mile from Buckingham Palace, a white Ford Escort leapt out from behind them and began closing in on them. Its engine bouncing off the red line, it raced up beside them, and when directly beside them, it held its position for a moment.

James, having a great view of the ever-developing situation thanks to his prime position on the left-hand side of the car, turned his head and began taking the bizarre scene in, eager to get to the bottom of what was going on. No sooner had he just about made out the image of a car unoccupied but for a driver that was staring intently into the back of the limousine, than said driver had put his foot down once again, pulled in front of them, and slammed on his brakes – forcing Alex to do the same.

It had been barely 10 seconds since the Escort had first made itself apparent so dramatically, and now, without a single hesitation or delay, the driver flung open his door, got out pistol in hand, and started opening fire. The window beside Anne and Rowena shattered immediately, sending shards of glass flying everywhere both inside and out, but fortunately, both ladies, while terrified, remained both unhit and unhurt.

James was already out of the car himself at this point, his well-drilled training long having since kicked in. Disregarding his own safety, he abandoned the cover that could have been found from hugging the car and taking the slow and steady approach, and instead sprinted around as fast as his adrenaline-filled legs could carry him. Unfortunately, the gunman, who by this point was at Anne’s door and desperately trying to wrestle it open, saw him coming, and had a bullet waiting for him as he sprinted out from around the front of the car – putting it cleanly into his chest.

He desperately attempted to return fire as blood began pouring from his chest, but it was to no avail. He got two shots off, both of which missed thanks to his body’s uncontrollable shaking as it started to go into physical shock, and then, on his third trigger pull, his pistol jammed.

And that jam couldn’t have happened at a worse time, because not only had James been shot, but the gunman had now gotten the car door unlocked. Swinging it open with such fury as to nearly pull it from its hinges, he fell upon Anne, clamping his hand down around her arm tight, demanding with surprising politeness that she “please get out of the car.”

Anne, having barely even a second to consider her options, briefly entertained the idea of delivering her answer with a clenched fist, but she rather wisely opted against such a response, reasoning that it would be “silly to be too rude at that stage.”

But as much as she didn’t want to be rude, she would have been lying if she pretended that she didn’t find the whole attempted kidnapping at gunpoint thing a touch irksome, so she still made her feelings on the matter perfectly apparent, answering the gunman’s request with a nice and simple “not bloody likely.”

With that said, a ferocious tug of war ensued, with the gunman clearly not wanting to shoot his target, but also being very insistent that it was in fact very bloody likely that she was going to be coming with him. On the other side was Mark, desperately putting every ounce of his strength into keeping his beloved wife in the car – because who knew what would happen should she end up in the back of that Escort.

Fortunately, by leveraging the strength of two against that of one, Anne and Mark prevailed, and she was soon pulled free and dragged over to the far side of the car, at which point the gunman was kicked away by Mark and had the door slammed back in his face. So ferocious had this ordeal been, that it had completely torn away the sleeve of Anne’s dress, something that did little to endear her towards her would-be kidnapper, as the little blue velvet number had actually been one of her favourites – having been something that she had first worn back on her honeymoon the year prior. Her arm was also awfully battered and torn up; but from Anne’s many recollections of the incident over the years, she seems to be far more miffed over the destruction of her favourite dress than she does over the physical injuries sustained.

As for what the kidnapper did next, he then stopped trying to forcibly remove Anne from the car, as a matter far more immediate had presented itself, and that would be the return of James to the fray, because despite having taken a round to the chest, he was far from out of the fight.

Having taken a few moments to unleash a barrage of language most inspired by the condition of his jammed-up shooter, and the ever faster bleeding of his chest wound, he had steeled himself, propped himself up against the side of the Princess – the car, that is, not the lady sat inside of it – and raised his pistol to the would-be kidnapper once again, ready to make a bet that had truly horrific odds, but one hell of a potential payout.

As for what that bet was, that was simple: he was wagering that the kidnapper hadn’t clocked that his pistol had jammed. Fortunately, he hadn’t, but unfortunately, he was undeterred by James’s display of unshakable resolve, and so, he just met James’s gun with his own, and demanded that the heroic copper before him chuck his tool aside. James, realising that his seized-up gun was now utterly useless, both as a way of directly dropping the assailant, and indirectly coaxing him into compliance, complied, reasoning that putting further stress on him was only going to increase the chances that this situation would end horrifically.

As for the kidnapper’s response to this, well, he naturally thought the situation was his to command, didn’t he? And so, he produced a second gun from his jacket, and while carrying the pair of them akimbo style, approached James, raised the new one to his chest, and instructed him that he was to open the car door for him.

In doing this however, he had pushed his luck too far, and James, being the absolute unit of a fella that he was, decided that enough was enough, and so, rather than complying yet again, he instead ignored his gaping chest wound and went for the gun, wrapping his hand firmly over its muzzle, and attempting to wrestle it away from him.

This, sadly, ended exactly how you would expect, and the kidnapper, driven either by impulse, or a sense of patience that had long since run out, pulled the trigger, and sent a round straight into James’s palm, wounding him a second time. They say that every cloud has a silver lining however, and in this instance that would be the fact that it had ‘only’ been a .22 long rifle round, and had hit hard bone rather than soft tissue, and so, rather than passing right through and hitting something more important for staying alive, it failed to penetrate, leaving James with an absolutely devastated hand, and with an even greater rate of blood loss, but very much still alive.

Anne, at that point, sensing that this kidnapping could soon enough escalate into a total bloodbath, did all she could do at this point: engage the kidnapper in conversation, and try to keep him both busy and calm.

Speaking to him in a low and quiet tone, she tried to make him feel in command of the situation by asking him what he wanted, and why he was doing this, and trying to validate him as much as she could.

This certainly proved difficult, as the assailant before her was now but a babbling wreck of a man, and so gave no answer more profound than “I’ll get a couple of million.” But while she may not have got anything deep or profound out of him, she had succeeded in calming him down and stopping him from potentially sticking another round into James, and that, ultimately, was all she wanted, at least immediately.

Such a reprieve would prove only temporary however, because while the kidnapper’s attention was on Anne, James, having treated himself to a second, very well-earned barrage of colourful language, had steeled himself once again and was working on a new plan. This saw him try to subtly communicate a message to Mark with delicate hand signals as he pretended to be tending to his newly devastated hand, and that message was: ‘clump him with the door, and I’ll mash him up when he recoils.’

Mark received the message loud and clear, and so nonchalantly began lining up an angle on the door. Then, following a nod from James that signified go time, he kicked it with all of his strength. Unfortunately, however, it turned out that the Austin Princess was the one car that British Leyland actually bothered to build properly, and so James’s grand vision of a door flying from its hinges and finding its true and rightful place in the kidnapper’s torso simply didn’t come to pass. Instead, it just limply disengaged from its lock, swung open a few inches, and left Mark’s knee bending the wrong way ever so.

The kidnapper was naturally none too chuffed about this turn of events, and so, when he saw James closing in on him, not having had time to process that the door gambit had been an abject failure, he simply raised one of his pistols, and put another round into his stomach. This unfortunately, was James’s breaking point, and so he immediately collapsed to the floor in a heap; the bullet having gone into his stomach, through his intestines, and pelvis, before eventually coming to rest in his back, just shy of his spinal cord.

Fortunately for Anne however, now another stepped into the fore in place of James, and it was Alex, her driver. Everything so far had taken no more than a few minutes, max, during which Alex was, quite understandably, absolutely paralysed by fear thanks to the kidnapper’s initial volley.

Now though, he had steeled himself, and decided it was time for action; but whatever was he to do? Should he get the hell out of there immediately, potentially leaving James, as well as Rowena, who was now out of the car and attempting to hide underneath it, to a grisly fate? Should he sit there with the engine running, ready to plant his right foot as and when ordered? Or, should he get out the car and try to intervene?

With James now out the fight, the latter had become the only option as he saw things, and so he tried to sneak the door open slowly but surely, intent on buying himself a nice clean path to pounce upon the kidnapper, or at least a clearer one should he be spotted mid-act.

Unfortunately, spotted he was, very quickly in fact too, and so he became the new focus of the assailant’s ever more jittery rage. He screamed at Alex to close the door and kill the engine, but Alex was having none of it, so instead he went for it, putting every bit of strength he could muster into getting that door open, and falling upon the man now pointing a gun squarely at him.

His heroics went unrewarded by fate however, and no sooner had he emerged from the car, than he too was given a round to the stomach. He immediately fell from the car and joined James on the ever more red-stained tarmac. He just about managed to muster the spluttered words “Good God, I’ve been shot,” and then was out unconscious.

But while fate might not have been smiling upon Alex, it was practically beaming upon Anne, because at this very moment, when all that stood between her and the stifling confines of a Ford Escort’s boot was a Lady in Waiting frozen like a rabbit in the headlights, and a husband whose efforts had already seen him injured, a new hero emerged from the miserable London mist, and it was Police Constable Michael Hills, a man who by pure fluke of fortune had been posted to the security detail of St James’ Palace, a touch further down The Mall, and who had just so happened to be conducting an outside security sweep when the kidnapper sprang into action. This meant he had heard the first shots clear as day, and so had been racing to the scene ever since.

Upon arriving at the scene covered in sweat, Michael stopped for but a moment to get a handle on what was happening, and then, after needing not even a second to get to the bottom of it, he took back off on his feet, aimed squarely at the gunman before him. He was to meet the same end as Alex and James however, because no sooner had he got a hand on the assailant’s elbow, intent on ragging both of the guns from his hands, than he too was shot in the stomach, and fell to the floor. He then proceeded to use his remaining few seconds of consciousness to drag himself to the curb while calling “There’s a shooting, I’ve been shot,” down his radio, and then he too was unconscious and out the fight.

But then, from both the literal and proverbial darkness, another figure emerged to come to Anne’s aid, and it was, of all people, a Fleet Street journalist by the name of Brian McConnell. By pure coincidence, he had been coming down The Mall in a black cab, and upon seeing the scene of absolute bedlam before him, at the centre of which was a royal limousine he immediately recognised, he leapt from the taxi without hesitation and moved in to do something about it.

His approach was a calm and cool one, not sprinting in like Michael and James had before him, but instead simply placing one foot in front of the other slowly and attempting to close the distance with the gunman while his tongue did what it could to keep the frantic man calm. This worked, and he soon found himself no more than a few feet from the man, at which point he held out his palm and said: “Look, old man, these are friends of mine: give me the gun.”

That was enough to pour petrol back onto the waning bonfire that was the assailant’s mind however, and so Brian’s demand was met not with an utterance of any kind, but with a bullet, with him too being shot once in the chest, and falling to the floor.

But while the situation as it stood at this point may have looked dire indeed, with the efforts of Brian, Michael, Alex, and James, and indeed Mark for his part in trying to boot the limo’s door open, appearing like they may well have been for naught, they had all done something very important: they had bought Anne time – during which the Metropolitan Police had been alerted to the situation, and were now sending every uniformed body they had spare down to The Mall with all possible haste.

And with uncanny timing kind of being this story’s hallmark, sure enough, the Met’s organised response began pouring onto The Mall pretty much the moment that Brian hit the concrete. At this point, the would-be kidnapper, who, while certainly frantic and highly strung, was no fool, took the ever-brighter sea of blue lights closing in on him as his cue to give his plot up as a bad job, and scarper.

As for where he scarpered to, that would be St James Park, the mass of green space adjacent to The Mall. He had also dropped both of his pistols by this point – with the exact time he ditched them both, that is, both at the same time, or having chucked one of them earlier, being unclear in the sources.

The Police, being unaware of this, immediately made for Anne’s limousine, and the four bloodied and bruised men who were laid out all around it. All four of them were leapt upon immediately by officers, who, mercifully, were able to confirm that all of them were indeed still alive, if not entirely kicking, and all efforts were made to stabilise their conditions and administer first aid in lieu of the efforts of a proper paramedic, as the ambulances were still on their way to the scene – understandably having been sent in behind the police cars thanks to the trigger-happy gunman running about the place.

But doing that only took so many officers, and so the rest, having been more than happily pointed in the right direction by Anne, Mark, and Rowena, dived into the verdant expanses of St James Park themselves, to see that the wrong’un was duly apprehended.

But if you happen to be thinking that the next part of the story is going to be a long and arduous process that would take many hours, if not even days, with the would-be kidnapper having gone to ground and squeezed himself somewhere unassuming, or just having bolted and made for the hills at a lightning pace; think again – because the pursuing officers actually didn’t have to go far at all.

As for why, that would be due to the efforts of a chap by the name of Ron Russell, who just so happened to be passing by The Mall as all of the chaos unfolded. He had kept his head down during the bulk of it, quite understandably, on account of all the bullets flying everywhere, but now, with the villain of the story attempting to cut his losses and flee, he decided that now was the time to do his patriotic duty for Queen and Country, and get stuck in to the miscreant.

Some details about Ron: he was six foot four inches tall (193cm), and an ex-heavyweight boxer, who at that time tipped the scales at 17 stone, or 108kg – and basically the lot of that was pure muscle.

So, picture the scene: the gunman had just made it into St James Park, where he was a man mentally torn asunder by equal parts trepidation over the four potential unlawful killing charges that hung over him, and the notion that maybe, just maybe, if his legs carried him fast enough, he might be able to shirk out of facing the music altogether and get away with it. But then, just as he began to draw some solace from the faint and lingering possibility of him preserving his freedom, a formidable figure emerged from the bushes, intent on chasing him down – and that’s exactly what he did.

The gunman didn’t have to spend too long in Ron’s clutches however, because before his face could be reduced to a fine paste, another man entered the fray, and that would be Peter Edmonds, an unarmed detective who had been one of the first officers to enter St James Park. He, naturally, followed the screaming, and after taking a moment to figure out which of the two men before him was actually the gunman, he took him off of Ron’s hands, formally placed him under arrest, and threw him into the back of a police van.

It was finally all over, and it hadn’t even taken 10 minutes from the moment that Anne’s car was first stopped, to the assailant being formally detained.

Who Is Princess Anne?

Princess Anne, born Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise on the 15th of August 1950, is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. As a senior member of the British royal family, she has played a significant role in public life, particularly through her dedication to charity work and service. Educated at Benenden School, she never bothered with University, and instead went straight into her royal duties at age 18, which consisted of the usual royal roster of charitable work, with her now being a patron of over 300 charities, official ceremonies such as the State Opening of Parliament, and international engagements that see her jetting all over the place to shake hands and schmooze with various important people the world over.

She also has a number of military roles that keep her busy, with her currently being the Colonel-in-Chief of The King’s Royal Hussars, The Royal Army Veterinary Corps, The Royal Corps of Signals, and The Royal Logistic Corps; and that’s just the British ones – as she also holds similar positions for a number of Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand regiments.

At face value, she’s essentially the same as basically any other Princess in a Constitutional Monarchy. Where she gets interesting however, is that she actually has a personality beyond the stoic public façade that her station in life demands she present primarily.

For example, she’s really into her horses, perhaps unsurprisingly for a Royal, but she’s actually very good at it, having racked up medals of all colours from various European Championships over the years, and even representing the UK at the 1976 Montreal Olympics; she didn’t get any medals, but then again, she did fall off her horse and crack her head open – so one can’t hold that against her.

Then there are her brushes with the law over the years. Nothing major, of course, but rather prolific speeding and traffic offences. So heavy is her right foot in fact, that there have been at least a dozen or so incidents documented over the years, perhaps the most notable of which was her being caught doing 93mph in a 70 zone back in 2001. This one stands out not only because she did it behind the wheel of a Bentley Mulsanne, but also because when it went to court, she pleaded guilty, but gave the excuse that she thought the blue lights on her tail were signifying a police escort, not an attempt to pull her over.

Back in 1990, she had a month-long ban and a fine levied upon her when she was caught speeding twice in as many days.

But speeding isn’t enough to earn one a criminal record in the UK; Anne does however have a criminal record, and is the only Royal to have one in fact, earned for another offence entirely.

That offence was violating the Dangerous Dogs Act back in 2002, when her beloved English Bull Terrier, Dotty, slipped out of its lead, got a bit carried away, and nipped a passing child or two.

When summoned to court to answer for this, Anne threw up her hands, pleaded guilty, and insisted that she wanted no preferential treatment on account of her station, a noble sentiment which the judge fully agreed with, as he slapped a £1,184 fine down on her.

The Immediate Aftermath

With the would-be kidnapper dealt with, all efforts could then be directed towards aiding the wounded, and as a blessed relief, with the ambulances finally arriving on the scene before the screaming coming out of St James Park had even stopped, they were soon being raced to nearby hospitals, with James and Alex being sent to Westminster Hospital, and Michael and Brian to St George’s.

And mercifully, all four of them, despite the seriousness of their injuries, went on to make full recoveries – having made it into surgery no later than an hour after the attempted kidnapping, and being removed from their respective critical care wards at various times over the following day as their conditions improved.

All four of them regained consciousness to find flowers and personally penned ‘get well soon’ cards from Anne and Mark, who had them personally delivered through the night by Lord Charles Maclean, who was then serving as Lord Chamberlain, the head of the Queen’s Household. Later, when their conditions had improved enough to receive more visitors, they all also received personal visits from both Anne and Mark, so that their thanks could be delivered in person.

As for what happened back on The Mall following the attempt, quite the fair-sized crowd had naturally formed during all of the commotion, and from their testimony we can gain a wider appreciation both of the scene as it looked at that point, and of the whole ordeal. For example, Samatha Scott, a young dance instructor who had witnessed the whole thing, and immediately rushed to Rowena’s aid, who was still crouched down by the side of the limousine, said the following:

“I stopped my Mini and ran to the royal car. We huddled on the ground. I could see Mark Phillips protecting Anne while the man tried to get them. They were huddled on the ground. I could see yellow roses scattered over the floor of the car. When the gunman had gone, I opened the door of the car and put my hand on Anne’s shoulder. I said to her, ‘Are you all right, love?’ She replied sweetly, ‘I’m all right, thank you.’ I asked Mark Phillips if he was O.K. and he said ‘I’m fine, thank you.’”

Then there was Brian McDermott, who by pure chance had been driving in the area when the kidnapper made his move. He said:

“Suddenly, I found myself in the middle of chaos. Then I heard what sounded like a couple of backfires. Then I saw the windscreen of the maroon Rolls being shattered, and I realised there was shooting going on. Suddenly, it looked like Northern Ireland. Then I saw this girl ducking from the gunfire. At the same time there was fighting going on. Within no time there was a great action going on. There were sirens blaring and police all around The Mall.”

Rowena later commented too, and offered some particularly interesting insight on what it was like up close and personal:

“There were so many bullets flying around in such a confined space, it’s amazing that (Mark) wasn’t hurt.”

As for what happened next, the Royal Couple were immediately ferried the short distance to Buckingham Palace and sat down for a half-hour interview with Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Gerrard. Although very shaken, both from the trauma of it all, and from the post-adrenaline shakes, they both offered clear and concise statements that would go on to form a strong foundation in the coming criminal prosecution.

Anne then spent several hours glued to the phone, as she tried to get a jump on the newspapers and deliver the news personally to her friends and family, lest they find themselves riddled with terror by whatever the tabloids cooked up.

Her parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were first, naturally, with them being all the way out in Indonesia at the time for a State Visit. Then it was Charles’ turn, as in then Prince of Wales now King Charles, as he was all the way over in the US serving aboard HMS Jupiter. Then it was onto her friends, with one of them in particular, a lady by the name of Alison Roberts, having spoken publicly about the enormous weight that was taken off her shoulders by the call, describing:

“…feeling weak at the knees when I heard the news flash and a tremendous feeling of relief when I heard her voice. It was typically thoughtful of her to think of others at such a moment of stress. I’ve never been so glad to get a telephone call in my life.”

From there, all that was to be done was to pen a statement for public release:

“We are very thankful to be in one piece. But we are deeply disturbed and concerned about those who got injured, including our chauffeur Mr. Callendar and Inspector Beaton. Inspector Beaton acted particularly bravely and although shot he continued to protect us. We are extremely grateful to all those members of the police and public who tried to help us.”

After that, both she and Mark returned to their normal lives, well, kind of anyway, partly because how ‘normal’ ever really is the life of a princess, but also because the security got just a bit intense for a few months. For example, she was normally quite the independent sort, driving herself about in a Reliant Scimitar, and while she still did that, she now did it in the company of three mountainous men from Scotland Yard’s Special Branch, in addition to a further carload of them that stayed glued to her rear bumper, all of them packing serious tools.

It was a similar story at her and Mark’s home, Oak Grove House, which despite otherwise being just your standard somewhat tarty Georgian property, was actually already a partial fortress, thanks to it being built into the walls of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which is where aspiring Army officers are shipped off to for 44 weeks of training.

It, along with Sandhurst more generally, soon came to resemble a theatre in the midst of a counter-insurgency operation, with a heavily armed cordon being placed at every single entrance, and two companies of equally heavily armed soldiers – which equates to 200-300 or so – being tasked with patrolling the perimeter round the clock.

As for the wider reaction, the elected politicians of all the Commonwealth countries were naturally immediately informed, with a debate in the British House of Commons concerning Scottish devolution being interrupted so that the then Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, could deliver a statement on the matter. It was a big deal too, with all MPs who were in the country racing to the Chamber in anticipation of it being read – a turnout which is usually only ever seen if they are debating their latest above-inflation pay rise.

As for what he said:

“I regret to have to inform that an attempt was made by an armed man to kidnap Princess Anne at 8pm this evening when she was on her way to Buckingham Palace with her husband. The attempt did not succeed. Neither Princess Anne nor Captain Phillips was hurt. I much regret to say, however, that Princess Anne’s protection officer sustained very severe injuries and her driver, a police constable, and a member of the public were also seriously hurt.”

This, in turn, was then followed by many statements in response. Edward Heath, the Leader of the Opposition, in his statement, offered his sympathies to all those who sustained injury, in addition to Anne herself, and then went on to endorse an enquiry into the matter, with a fundamental focus being to establish just how their movements could have been plotted so accurately without the security services having become aware. This was then followed up by equivalent statements by Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal Party, and Donald Stewart, the leader of the Scottish National Party.

Following that, Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, then gave The House exactly what it wanted, announcing an immediate enquiry into the matter, with Robert Mark, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, assigning three Deputy Assistant Commissioners to lead the investigation.

There was also one more statement of note made on the night of the attempted kidnapping too, and it came from none other than the Irish Republican Army, or IRA. Some context for those who might not be immediately aware why this particular statement would raise an eyebrow: at the time of the attempt on Anne, and all the way through to 1998 in fact, the IRA was fighting a guerrilla war on the United Kingdom’s soil, specifically in (mostly) Northern Ireland – the island of Ireland itself having been partitioned all the way back in 1921 between Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, which secured its independence thanks to an independence war fought immediately after World War I.

This partition sparked no joy for the IRA, who wished to see the end of British rule on the whole island, and Ireland unified as a single and independent nation. The aforementioned guerrilla war, which has gone down in history as ‘The Troubles,’ was their way of attempting to bring this unification about, as they recognised the fact that they’d likely be defeated in a conventional war due to their comparatively limited numbers and equipment.

They hadn’t gone for the Royal Family since The Troubles began in the 1960s, not with any real vigour anyway, but with the conflict being rather intense to say the least, with over 12,000 shootings and bomb attacks occurring in Northern Ireland just in 1972 alone, the fear that the Windsors may find themselves in the IRA’s crosshairs was an ever-present one.

Further to just the general violent malaise however, there was also burning concern at the time that the IRA wanted to bag some big names as payback for Bloody Sunday, a 1972 massacre in which soldiers from The Parachute Regiment opened fire with live rounds on an unarmed protest in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 14 and wounding at least another 14.

So then, was the IRA behind the attempt on Anne?

Well, no, actually, they weren’t. Their statement released on the night was nothing but a denial, stating that it had nothing to do with them, and sure enough, this claim would later be vindicated by the Metropolitan Police’s enquiry.

The Kidnapper

In what may come as a shock, the morality behind the case is actually far greyer than one may have originally imagined, because rather than a nice clear-cut, black and white case of political motivation, as we would see if it were the IRA behind the attempt, or even just an economic motivation by a person or persons eager to bag themselves a well-paying hostage, the man who attempted to kidnap Anne, and it was just the effort of a single man, was really not well mentally, and further obfuscating things still, he legitimately did believe he was doing it for the best of reasons, and with the best of intentions.

As for who that man was, that would be 26-year-old Ian Ball, and we begin to get an understanding both of his motivations, and how he envisioned his plan as going, from his ransom note, which he had on his person when he was detained. It was addressed to none other than the Queen herself, and opened by saying:

“Your daughter has been kidnapped – the following conditions to be fulfilled for her release. A ransom of £3 million is to be paid in £5 notes. They are to be used, unmarked, not sprayed with any chemical substance and not consecutively numbered.

The money is to be packed in 30 unlocked suitcases clearly marked on the outside. The following documents are to be prepared: a free pardon to cover the kidnapping, and anything connected with it, i.e. the possession of firearms or the murder of any police officer; a free pardon for any offences committed by myself from parking to murder. As the money is to be banked abroad, I shall be asking for a free pardon to run indefinitely for being in contravention of the Exchange Control Act.

Documents are to be prepared for a civilian action to be taken against the police if they disclose my true identity with damages of not less than £1 million. A civilian action to be taken against you or your consorts if you reveal my true identity. No excuses will be accepted for failing to compile these documents.

If they cannot be drawn up under existing laws, the laws must be changed.”

From there, he went on to dictate how said ransom money was to be delivered to him personally at Heathrow Airport, along with a plane that was to take him to Zurich, Switzerland. He also demanded that the transaction be handled by one of his solicitors, who he simply called ‘Mr Clarke,’ and he was really set on this particular point:

“No one else will be acceptable. If he is ill, I want him brought to me on a stretcher. If he is dead, I want his body dug up and brought to the plane.”

He then said that the Queen would have to also come and see him before he departed for Zurich, and when there, provide him a sample signature so that he could verify her identity. As for why he wanted this in particular – he doesn’t say. From there, he would be off, and Anne would be released upon his landing.

From his words, you can also get a slight glimpse into just how poor his mental health was at the time. His demands regarding ‘Mr Clarke’ for example suggest a mind not entirely grounded in reality.

We don’t have to guess and fill in the blanks as to his mental condition however, because thanks to his medical records having long since been disclosed to the public under the Freedom of Information Act, as well as the work of countless researchers delving deep into his life, we actually know a lot about him.

We know, for example, that he was first committed to hospital for his mental health all the way back in 1967, where he was diagnosed as a “schizoid,” which now, in more enlightened times, we would call a person suffering from Schizoid Personality Disorder.

This diagnosis, which is characterized by detachment from social relationships and a limited range of emotional expression in interpersonal settings, seems to have been accurate, as it really lines up perfectly with what else we know about his history.

For example, he himself dubbed himself a “loner” during his police interviews and went on to describe how throughout his life he had felt inadequate and proved all but incapable of making friends. Those who knew him in passing, when called in for interview, also went on to describe him as a “misfit,” one who hadn’t had a job in over two years prior to the kidnapping, and even before that hadn’t managed to hold down part-time work.

His inability to find and hold down any sort of work had also led to him slipping into a life of petty crime, with him being arrested and convicted a total of three times for receiving stolen goods and obtaining goods by deception – it was one of these convictions that had led to him being committed to hospital for his mental health in fact, as it had been noticed during his trial that something was a bit ‘off’ about him.

This also brings us to his motivation for attempting to kidnap Anne, because it turns out that he had intended to donate the vast bulk of his ransom to the National Health Service, the UK’s state-run healthcare system.

It turned out that his experience of the system had been so awful, with him having found it utterly out of touch with what he really needed as a patient both in terms of facilities and expertise, that as he thought on the matter in his most clouded mind, he had soon enough come to the conclusion that it needed an injection of cash to sort it out. Naturally, as a man of modest means, he had no way of ever doing so himself, and so, after writing off all other options in his mind, he arrived at the decision to kidnap someone important, and use the lucrative ransom they would secure him as the source of his cash to donate.

It is worth noting how Ian’s mental health has been handled by the commentariat over the years, both at the time amidst the pages of tabloid rags, and after the fact in books – which is to say, rather poorly, with words such as “loony,” “nut job,” and “lunatic” often being thrown around. This simply isn’t how it should be discussed.

Today, we are not dealing with a serial killer, mass shooter, or repeat sexual offender, instead, we are dealing with a very, very unwell man, who while his mind was clouded beyond his control, did something beyond stupid with the best of intentions. Does this relinquish the objective brutality of his act, and in any way make things better for his victims? No, of course it doesn’t, but neither does the abhorrence of his deed change the fact that his mind was not his own when he committed them.

But one must still be responsible for their own actions during moments of lucidity, and ultimately, as and when able, hold themselves to an accountable standard to at least try and improve themselves.

How then should an offender like Ian be handled? Firstly, whether he liked it or not, when his mind had gone to the point that he was running around The Mall with akimbo pistols, he would have to receive appropriate and professional treatment, and that would have to be done within a closed facility, as he simply would be a danger to wider society.

And then, when he’d been signed off as being fully mended, with his brain back in full working order, the time would come for him to start making payments on his debt to society, be it as community service, or as compensatory servitude to those he had earlier hurt – a custodial sentence would not benefit anyone at that point. And then, when that debt had been cleared, you’d have a man who had gotten his head sorted out so he could go on his way as a productive and amenable member of society, and you’d have victims who hadn’t been indisposed by his hand.

But that is just one opinion, and as for the far more important matter of how the British state handled him, that will be addressed in due course.

The Investigation

As this case isn’t exactly a big ‘whodunit’ type mystery, we won’t dwell on the full ins and outs of the investigation, and instead will simply pick out some interesting things that Robert Mark’s team uncovered that add wider context and supplementary information to the story.

For example, there was the fact that Ian actually plotted the kidnapping with extreme care and attention to detail, far in excess of what we have already seen. Take as evidence the fact that he realised that his plan, even if successful, presented the chance that he would never be able to return to the United Kingdom ever again – because what power would he have to make sure that the pardon he was demanding was honoured once he gave up the leverage that was Anne?

None was the answer, of course, and so with that in mind, he completely emptied his bank account prior to go-time, meaning that he had give or take £700, or about £6,000 adjusted for inflation, on his person when he was arrested; all in £20 notes since the £50 had been pulled in 1943 due to forgery concerns and wasn’t reintroduced until 1981.

We only know this due to the investigation team having combed through Ian’s bank accounts, as there was no mention of it at all on any of his arrest paperwork. Consequently, it would appear as though someone, be it a bent officer with nimble fingers, Ron after he got done with his face-mashing, or even just a random jogger the following morning, got a tidy little bonus pay-day out of the whole affair.

He was also well aware that the police would try to trace his handwriting were he to write his ransom note out by hand, and so, rather shrewdly, he opted to use a typewriter. What was less shrewd however, was that since he didn’t actually own one, he opted to rent one, for a single day, and proudly announce to the store clerk that he only needed it to type out two letters.

While this wasn’t so weird that it had the store clerk diving over to their telephone to ring the police and inform them that there was a wrong’un in their store, it was weird enough to stick in their mind, and so, when detectives turned up the week after the attempted kidnapping with a photo of Ian, asking if he had been recently to make use of a typewriter, the clerk immediately remembered him and steered them over to the very typewriter used to type out Ian’s two letters – and through pure fluke of it not having been rented out again since, and said clerk being a bit grotty, it hadn’t been cleaned, and was still covered in Ian’s fingerprints.

Not that recovering this typewriter was the lynchpin that the whole conviction rested upon, Ian had still been caught both literally and figuratively red-handed – but it’s still an interesting detail nonetheless.

The other letter he typed was one addressed to a firm of solicitors in Hounslow, Middlesex, who Ian had chosen to act as the intermediaries in the ransom negotiations. Not that he’d run this by them beforehand, or even ever used them before; they were chosen totally out of the blue – for who knows what reason.

It was also discovered that his whole plan had very nearly come totally unstuck before he had even had time to strike, because on the day of the attempted kidnapping, while carrying out some last-minute reconnaissance, Ian had plonked his Ford Escort, which it turned out was also rented, in his own name, right outside of the rear entrance to Sandhurst Military Academy so that he could observe Anne’s movements.

This soon enough led to the inevitable happening: a Military Police Officer battering on his window while demanding to know what was going on and wanting to see some ID. As this distracted him from his regular schedule, said redcap was none too chuffed, and so, after completely failing to notice that he had been handed a fake driver’s license, he proceeded to search Ian’s car from top to bottom.

Alas, Ian had left his weapons at home. And so, he was sent on his way.

There’s also the matter of Ian’s guns, as although he ‘only’ brought two of them along with him when he made his attempt on Anne, he actually had quite the cache all in all, as he also had a further two back at the rented house he had planned to use as Anne’s ‘cell.’ As for what they were specifically, the first handgun he opened fire with was a Walther PPK, as famously used by James Bond, and some kind of .22 long rifle revolver, although the exact model could not be identified from available sources.

As for the two from his house, those appear to have been Smith & Wesson revolvers, possibly a Model 36 and/or a Model 10, though this identification is not certain.

The really interesting thing however is where he got them: not from a gun shop, because this green and pleasant land did actually have pretty liberal gun laws back in ‘74, and not from some dodgy Kray Twin wannabe down the pub either. No, instead he bought them while on holiday in Spain, somehow.

No further details about this could be uncovered – no details about how he acquired them while in Spain, no details on how he then got them into the country, nothing else.

The Trial and the Fallout

While the police were fastidious in their investigation, thanks to the whole being caught red-handed and leaving loads of witnesses thing, it wasn’t an investigation that took terribly long, with the case against Ian being fully collected and ready to be put to court in May, with proceedings formally beginning on the 22nd of that month.

And as said kidnapping was rather a big deal, the case wasn’t to be heard at some minor court in an obscure borough, oh no. Instead, it was to be heard at the court – the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales. Better known as ‘The Old Bailey,’ this 16th-century-rooted institution was, and still is, reserved near exclusively for hearing only the most extreme and serious of crimes from across Greater London, and sometimes even the whole country if the extremity of the case warrants it.

Ian, for his part, submitted a guilty plea for all charges: one for attempted kidnapping, and four counts of attempted murder.

As for the verdict rendered by the presiding judge, one Lord Chief Justice John Widgery, Ian was to be immediately detained within a secure mental health facility until such a point that he had been deemed cured, with no time limit or mandatory release date being placed on his detention.

That saw him be sent to Broadmoor Hospital, the United Kingdom’s oldest and most infamous high-security psychiatric hospital; where he remains to this day – 50 years later.

A review of legal guidelines indicates that if Ian had just been convicted ‘normally’ for his charges, he would have been out of prison 30 years later, with even that figure being on the top end of estimations. So why is he still in there?

Approaches were made to the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Courts & Tribunals Service, and even the West London NHS Trust, since they administer Broadmoor, for comment. Of those four, the West London NHS Trust was the only one to respond, and all they did was to very politely decline to comment while pointing out that data protection and patient confidentiality are things. Unfortunately, therefore, the exact reason why Ian continues to be detained to this day remains unclear.

There are two possible explanations. Either Ian is being intentionally held out of vengeance for having targeted a Royal, which would not only be concerning but would also undermine faith in the institution, or Broadmoor has hugely failed in its duty of care to him, and somehow still hasn’t managed to treat him effectively in 50 years. Either way, this needs to be looked into – as neither explanation is satisfactory.

As for the other characters in this story, many of them were handsomely rewarded for their parts in preventing Anne’s kidnapping, with the Home Office announcing not even three days after the incident that it had deemed that medals were in order and was in the process of considering what would be appropriate. The Queen was consulted on this matter too, what with it being her daughter that was saved, and basically all of the medals that were potentially up for grabs being issued in her name, and she was very insistent that no favouritism was to be shown.

But the lack of favouritism certainly didn’t stop some particularly weighty brass from being dished out, because James, who took three bullets while trying to save Anne, was awarded the George Cross; the greatest award for gallantry that can be awarded to a British civilian, or soldier not actively under fire – with the award being of equal weight to the military Victoria Cross. So big a deal is the George Cross in fact, that since its inception in 1940, only 416 of them had ever been awarded as of early 2024.

As for Michael and Ron, they both received the George Medal, a lesser award for gallantry, that like the George Cross, is awarded to civilians and out-of-the-fight soldiers. The word ‘lesser’ is used technically, because while technically correct, it doesn’t quite convey just how big of a deal the medal actually is. What does do that, however, is the fact that only 2,122 of them had been awarded since its inception in 1940, as of early 2024.

As for Brian, Alex, and Peter, they were awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for their efforts, a lesser but no less impressive award again, that was actually only instituted in 1974, making the three of them some of its first recipients. For reference, the Queen only issued 1,101 of them during her reign.

Further still, for Peter, it would be a double whammy of rewards, because not only did he get his medal, but he was also promoted to Detective Constable for his efforts.

A point of clarity on the ‘lesser’ designation: in the UK, medals, both civilian and military, are worn according to a strict ‘Order of Wear’ that dictates how they be arranged, with the ones deemed the most ‘difficult’ to earn by the Ministry of Defence going the furthest to the right as you wear them. So when it is said they are ‘lesser,’ this is not besmirching the acts of those who have been awarded them, but simply saying that they sit lower in that Order of Wear.

Following that, they all returned to their normal lives. All except for James anyway, because when he recovered, the trauma of the experience proved too crushing for him to return to regular duties, and so he left the Palace Protection Squad in late 1974, opting to take on lighter desk duties instead. The Queen remembered him however, and after keeping in touch with him, and making various resources available to him to aid his mental recovery, eventually coaxed him back into royal service, appointing him as her Personal Detective in 1983.

In the longer term, Anne’s attempted kidnapping also sparked a full and comprehensive review into royal security. The findings and actions of this review have never been published, for obvious reasons, but if you do a bit of research, it isn’t hard to deduce a few of the measures that were taken.

For starters, more serious hardware was procured, and measures were taken to take much, much better care of what they did buy so it wouldn’t fail to feed and lock up after the slightest use as James’s had.

As for specifics, if we look at modern photos, which are far easier to come by, when a jacket is viewed at just the right angle, the shape of what appears to be a Glock 17 can be seen buried within, and if you get a look into a royal car, you will often spot what appears to be an HK416 assault rifle, cocked, locked, and ready to go – just in case. They’ve also got their hands on some MP5 submachine guns too, which can be seen clearly in press footage. It is also more likely than not these MP5s that are being carried on those photos of royal bodyguards with weirdly broad midsections and clearly fake arms; under the jacket, stock folded, cocked and locked, needing just their thumb safety flicked off before they can respond to any would-be attackers.

Beyond just the tools however, many of the royal cars, specifically the limos they use while executing public duties, received the same treatment as the President of the US’ Cadillac. Take the one-off Bentley Arnage derived state car that was delivered to the Queen back in 2002 as an example. Setting her back a nice round £10 million, it came equipped with bullet-resistant Kevlar-impregnated tyres, fully bulletproof windows made from advanced polycarbonates, and bomb-resistant armour plating.

So it seems safe to say that we will not be seeing another Ian ever again with all these new measures in place.

And perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the very notion of there being more Ians looming in the peripheries that was a cause of major concern following the attempt on Anne, as summed up best by the then MP for Handsworth, John Lee, who said the following in a parliamentary debate on the kidnapping in 1974:

“There is always the danger when acts of this kind happen that disturbed persons might resort to imitative tactics.”

And in saying that, he was nothing if not prophetic, because while there would never be another ‘I’ve got a shooter get in the boot’ type kidnapping attempt ever again, there were a lot of violent incidents targeted at the royal family in the following years, with them gradually starting to peter out once those new security measures began to mature and get fully figured out.

There was, for example, a violent incident involving the then Prince Charles, also in 1974. It occurred while he was attending an underwater warfare course at Portland, Dorset, as part of his day job with the Navy, and it saw a fellow officer from HMS Jupiter completely break mentally and start smashing up the sitting room that adjoined Charles’ quarters. He naturally went to investigate, and after attempting to calm the man down, and failing, he had a chair abruptly swung at him, which missed him by mere inches and cracked the wall beside him.

Fortunately, it turns out that Charles could handle himself, and so, with no other way to calm the situation, he struck the comrade-turned-assailant on the jaw, and put him on the floor, at which point he, along with some other officers who too had come to investigate the commotion, restrained him, and took him down to sick bay so he could receive proper attention and treatment.

But while Charles, and indeed Anne before him had gotten lucky, not every member of the Royal Family would be, because in 1979, Lord Louis, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the Queen’s cousin, was out fishing with his family off the coast of Ireland, when 50 pounds worth of gelignite explosive suddenly ignited and tore through the boat, killing Mountbatten, his teenage grandson, and one of his grandson’s local friends instantly, in addition to wounding a further four others, one of whom would succumb to her injuries the following day.

The next incident of note, which occurred in 1981, had potential to be the worst of the lot however, because while The Queen herself, accompanied by an entourage of choice royal retainers, rode along The Mall, into Horse Guards Palace for The Trooping of Colour Ceremony, which is the big ceremony the Monarch has every year to celebrate their official birthday, shots rang out through the streets as a gunman nestled among the crowd opened up on the parade.

The Queen, being the absolute weapon of a woman that she was, quenched her fear, maintained her composure and kept on riding, recognising the fact that if a gunman did indeed have her in their sights, was a good enough shot, and had a full magazine, there was little she could do about it anyway, and so instead chose to meet her fate with her head held high.

Fortunately, that meeting was delayed for another 41 years, thanks to the fact that the shooter was a monumental idiot; he had been firing blanks. He had wanted to do the job properly, but after finding himself unable to secure live ammunition, he opted instead to just do something rather than give up.

But ultimately, as much as one might want to go on and give a full timeline of every single violent incident that has ever been aimed at the Royal Family since 1974, that would detract from the main purpose for telling you all of this – which is just to give you a few examples to prove that what happened to Anne on The Mall was far from an isolated incident.

Key Takeaways

• On March 20, 1974, Ian Ball attempted to kidnap Princess Anne on The Mall in London, but was thwarted by multiple interveners.
• Detective Inspector James Beaton, driver Alex Callendar, PC Michael Hills, and journalist Brian McConnell were all shot while protecting Anne.
• Anne herself helped de-escalate the situation by calmly engaging Ball in conversation while waiting for police to arrive.
• Ball, who had schizoid personality disorder, intended to donate the £3 million ransom to the NHS, believing his motives were good.
• The incident prompted a major overhaul of royal security, including armored vehicles, upgraded firearms, and substantially increased protection details.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne take place?

The attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne took place on the 20th of March 1974.

Who was driving Princess Anne’s limousine during the attempted kidnapping?

Alex Callendar was driving Princess Anne’s limousine. He was a very experienced driver who had spent the last 20 of his 55 years plying the trade for Buckingham Palace.

What was Princess Anne’s response when the gunman demanded she get out of the car?

Princess Anne responded to the gunman’s demand with ‘not bloody likely.‘

Who was the would-be kidnapper and what was his age at the time?

The would-be kidnapper was 26-year-old Ian Ball.

What was Ian Ball’s stated motivation for attempting to kidnap Princess Anne?

Ian Ball intended to donate the vast bulk of his ransom to the National Health Service (NHS), as he believed the system needed an injection of cash to sort it out after finding it utterly out of touch with what he needed as a patient.

How much ransom did Ian Ball demand in his note to the Queen?

Ian Ball demanded a ransom of £3 million to be paid in £5 notes.

What awards were given to those who helped prevent the kidnapping?

James Beaton received the George Cross; Michael Hills and Ron Russell both received the George Medal; and Brian McConnell, Alex Callendar, and Peter Edmonds received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

What happened to Ian Ball after his trial?

Ian Ball was immediately detained within a secure mental health facility (Broadmoor Hospital) until such a point that he had been deemed cured, with no time limit or mandatory release date placed on his detention. As of the time of writing, he remains there 50 years later.

What security changes were implemented for the Royal Family after the attempted kidnapping?

Security changes included procuring more serious hardware (such as Glock 17 pistols, HK416 assault rifles, and MP5 submachine guns), taking better care of equipment so it wouldn’t jam, and armoring royal limousines with bullet-resistant Kevlar tires, bulletproof polycarbonate windows, and bomb-resistant armor plating.

Did the IRA claim responsibility for the attempted kidnapping?

No, the IRA explicitly denied involvement in a statement released on the night of the attempted kidnapping, and this claim was later vindicated by the Metropolitan Police’s enquiry.

Sources

• Original Casual Criminalist video: The Bungled Kidnapping of Princess Anne
• Hero image source by Matt Brown / openverse, by.

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