50th "Jubilee":

Wild abduction attempt of Princess Anne

Princess Anne and Mark Phillips(Bild: PA / picturedesk.com)

50 years ago, a shocking incident shook the kingdom awake: there was an abduction attempt involving Princess Anne. How it happened and why the case drastically changed the security of the royals.

A luxurious Aston Martin with a royal emblem on the roof rolls along The Mall in London towards Buckingham Palace on the evening of March 20, 1974. The 23-year-old Queen's daughter Princess Anne and her then husband, 25-year-old officer Mark Phillips, were sitting in the back seat. The couple had married with great pomp just the year before.

Shortly before they reach their destination, a white Ford Escort appears, overtaking the royal limousine and forcing it to stop. An armed man gets out. He is after Princess Anne. He wants to kidnap her in order to extort several million in ransom money.

The incident took place just one year after Anne and Mark's lavish wedding.(Bild: AP1973 / AP / picturedesk.com)

And he means business. He shoots down four men who stand in his way: the bodyguard, the chauffeur, a police officer who has rushed to the scene and a journalist who happens to be passing by in a cab and decides to intervene.

"Go away, you silly man"
Princess Anne reportedly remains surprisingly calm about the whole incident. According to an eyewitness, she tells the kidnapper who tries to drag her out of the vehicle: "Go away, you silly man". She has retained the image of the no-nonsense princess to this day. The now 73-year-old sister of King Charles III (75) is considered to be extremely conscientious and, perhaps even more importantly, free of scandal.

A white Ford Escort forced the royals to stop. The kidnapper was after Anne.(Bild: ©TopFoto / TopFoto / picturedesk.com)

The stoic princess and her husband engage in a kind of tug-of-war with the gunman - the kidnapper pulls on her arm, her husband holds out. At the same time, the couple try to talk the kidnapper out of his plan. They are not successful, but at least they gain time.

The kidnapper can only be stopped by a former boxer. Ronnie Russel, a working-class man who had trained at a boxing club in east London, passes the scene of the incident on his way home from work that evening. The then 28-year-old managed to approach the gunman and struck him twice with his fists, knocking him down. By this time, other police officers had arrived, who overpowered and arrested the perpetrator.

Security of the royals was taken more seriously
The incident shook the royal family awake. It became clear that the danger of an attack on the royals had been considerably underestimated. Especially at a time when a bloody civil war is raging in Northern Ireland between royalists and supporters of secession from the United Kingdom.

Princess Anne spoke to Inspector James Baton, her private bodyguard, at Westminster Hospital in London. Inspector Beaton was shot three times in the stomach, shoulder and arm during the shooting,(Bild: AP / picturedesk.com)

"Royal bodyguarding was a pretty amateurish business when I was at Buckingham Palace," says Dick Ellis, who used to work as a bodyguard for the royal family, in a documentary by British TV station Channel 4 on the 50th anniversary of the attempted kidnapping. According to the broadcaster, the cost of the royals' security is now estimated at around 100 million pounds a year (equivalent to around 117 million euros).

Prince Harry (39), who has left the inner circle of the royal family, is currently involved in a legal dispute with the British Home Office because he is no longer to be granted the same police protection as other royals when visiting his homeland. Harry, who lives with his wife Duchess Meghan (42) and their two children Archie (4) and Lilibet (2) in the US state of California, recently suffered a defeat in the proceedings, but intends to appeal.

All those shot survived
The people shot miraculously all survive. Weeks later, they are awarded medals and decorations at a ceremony in the palace.

"The medal is the Queen of England's thanks, I would like to thank you as Anne's mother," former boxer Russel recalls the Queen's words when she pinned the George medal on him. He has since parted with the memento.

In 2020, he auctioned off the medal along with a letter from the seat of government at 10 Downing Street, with the notification of the honor, a telegram from Princess Anne and a letter from the head of Scotland Yard. With the 50,000 pounds he raised, he wanted to leave money for his funeral, among other things.

Perpetrator was mentally ill
The thwarted kidnapper was committed to a closed psychiatric ward for an indefinite period. His motive never became completely clear. However, it does not appear to have been money: The mentally ill man wanted to donate the ransom of three million British pounds to the NHS health service for better equipment in psychiatric hospitals.