Around 8 p.m. on March 1974, a white Ford Escort driven by Ian Ball swerved across to block the path of a car carrying Princess Anne.
The driver was intent on kidnapping her, because in his words “I had thought about it for years… She would have been the easiest.”
Though, since then his reasoning has changed a couple of times.
Unfortunately for him, he was quite wrong. Princess Anne is very much the daughter of Prince Phillip, inheriting his quick thinking, nerves of steel and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
Prince Phillip and Princess Anne 1972
Ball had rented a car under the name of John Williams, in which police would later find two pairs of handcuffs, Valium tranquilizers, and a ransom letter addressed to the Queen.
He had typed a rambling note that criticized the royal family and demanded a £2 million ransom to be delivered in £5 sterling notes.
Ball demanded the Queen have the money stored in 20 unlocked suitcases and put on a plane destined for Switzerland.
Furthermore, he insisted Queen Elizabeth II herself,would need to appear on the plane to confirm the authenticity of her signatures on needed paperwork.
Ball fired several shots into the car carrying Princess Anne and her husband of just 4 months, Capt. Mark Phillips.
In total there were 5 people in the car. In addition to their bodyguard and driver, Princess Anne and Captain Phillips were accompanied by Rowena Brassey, the Princess’s lady in waiting.
A tabloid journalist, a former boxer, 2 chauffeurs and 3 policemen all faced off against Ball, but it was the princess herself, a force to be reckoned with in her own right, who kept Ball distracted from his goal of kidnapping her.
Princess Anne & Mark Phillips
On the night of the kidnapping attempt, SO14 had only assigned one man to protect the princess, but then again only one bodyguard accompanied Queen Elizabeth on unofficial trips to and from her residence at the time.
Although Ball would not have known the route that the limousine would take that night, the palace had publicized Princess Anne’s appearance at the event, potentially making it easy for someone to follow the maroon Rolls-Royce as it escorted her from the theater that evening.
There were 7 men in total, (4 seriously injured) who tried to stop Ian Ball, an unemployed laborer from north London, from kidnapping Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth’s only daughter.
Princess Anne and Phillips were heading towards Buckingham Palace after attending a charity film screening.
Jim Beaton holding the door open for Princess Anne
Anne’s lady-in-waiting sat across from the couple in the back of a maroon Rolls-Royce limousine marked with the royal insignia, and in the passenger seat rode her bodyguard: Inspector James Wallace Beaton, a member of SO14, Scotland Yard’s special operations branch charged with royalty protection.
As the chauffeur drove down the Mall, a road that runs between London’s Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace, inside was the Princess, then 23, when his car was brought to a halt by Ian Ball, 26 with his white Ford Escort about 200 yrds away from the palace.
A bearded man with light red hair exited the car and, holding two handguns, charged towards the rear of the limo.
Inspector Beaton, 31, assumed that the man was a disgruntled driver and stepped out to meet him. From 6 feet away, the assailant shot the officer in his right shoulder.
“He was shaking the door and trying to get in,” one witness said.
“At first I thought it was car backfiring,” said Mrs. Joan Moore, who was walking down The Mall. “By the time reached the scene there were policemen everywhere. Someone told me Princess Anne had been in the car, but I did not see her.
But I did see three men lying on the pavement. They appeared to be badly hurt. Certainly when they were carried into an ambulance they were not moving.”
“Open, or I’ll shoot!” Ball yelled.
Anne sat on the other side.
As the princess and Captain Phillips did their best to hold the door shut, Princess Anne’s lady-in-waiting crawled out of the door on the passenger side.
Ball then got into the limousine and told Princess Anne to get out.
Beaton (Anne’s bodygaurd) took the opportunity to jump back in the limo.
Although few of London’s Metropolitan police carried guns, those assigned to protect the royal family carried automatic weapons.
Inspector Beaton tried to shoot Ian Ball, but his wounded shoulder hurt his aim. After firing once, his gun jammed.
He placed himself between the couple and their assailant, who shot into the car. Beaton’s hand deflected the bullet.
Ball then shot him a third time, causing a wound that forced Beaton out of the car and onto the ground.
Ball turned to the rear door behind the driver’s seat and started shaking it.
In response to one of Ball’s pleas, Princess Anne retorted, “Bloody likely.”
- According to the Princess Anne’s evidence, Ball had pointed his gun at her and said: “I want you to come with me for a day or two, because I want two million. Will you get out of the car?” This is what prompting her feisty response.
Chauffeur Alexander Callendar, one of the Queen’s drivers, stepped out to confront the gunman.
Ball shot him in the chest and Callender fell back into the car. Pulling the back door open, Ball grabbed Anne’s forearm as Phillip held onto her waist.
Ball Later said, ‘They were getting in my way so I had to shoot them. Well, the police, that’s their job. They expect to be shot. I took a chance of getting shot so why shouldn’t they?’
Ball shot him in the chest and Callender fell back into the car. Pulling the back door open, Ball grabbed Anne’s forearm as Phillip held onto her waist.
As the two men struggled over Anne, her dress ripped, splitting down the back. Instead of panicking, she had what she later called “a very irritating conversation” with her potential kidnapper.
“Please, come out,” said Ball to Anne. “You’ve got to come.”
“I kept saying I didn’t want to get out of the car, and I was not going to get out of the car,” she told police.
Speaking about the ordeal on Parkinson, Princess Anne said: “He opened the door, and we had a sort of discussion, hah! about where or where not we were going to go,” Anne recalled.
“He said I had to go with him, can’t remember why.””I said I didn’t think I wanted to go.”I was scrupulously polite because I thought it’s silly to be too rude or that sort of thing
.”We had a fairly low-key discussion about the fact that I wasn’t going to go anywhere and wouldn’t it be much better if he moved away and we’d all forget about it?
Then he grabbed my arm and pulled, unfortunately, well …the back of my dress split from top to terminal the shoulders went a bit and that was his most dangerous moment. I lost my ragga that stays and he then lagged it off towards the car the police gave chase and he was caught.
She did eventually accede to Ball’s request but, as he followed her out of the car, he was struck by former boxer Ron Russell, who also happened to be passing.
“I was frightened, I won’t mind admitting it,” Captain Phillips later said. The scariest part, he remembered, was feeling like a caged animal when police officers started arriving.
Then “the rescue was so near, but so far” as constables hesitated to advance on an armed man so near the princess.
Police Constable Michael Hills, 22, was first on the scene. Patrolling nearby when he heard the sounds of a struggle, he assumed the conflict was over a car accident.
Princess Anne talks to PC Michael Hills, who was injured during Ian Ball’s attempt to kidnap Princess Anne in Pall Mall.
Date: 25/03/1974
He approached Ball and touched his shoulder. The gunman turned and shot Hills in the stomach. Before collapsing, Hills maintained enough strength to radio his station.
Ronald Russell, a company cleaning executive, was driving home from work when he saw the scene on the side of the road. He approached on foot after seeing Ian Ball confront Officer Hills.
“He needs sorting,” Russell later remembered thinking. A 6’4” former boxer, Russell advanced to punish the shooter for hurting a policeman.
Another motorist, a chauffeur named Glenmore Martin, had parked his car in front of the white Ford to keep Ball from escaping.
He also tried to distract Ball, but when the gunman aimed at him, Martin turned to help Officer Hills on the side of the road.
Meanwhile, Daily Mail journalist John Brian McConnell came onto the scene. Recognizing the insignia on the limo, he knew a member of the royal family was in danger.
“Don’t be silly, old boy,” he said to Ball. “Put the gun down.” Ball shot him. McConnell fell to the road, now the third man bleeding onto the pavement.
After McConnell fell, Ball turned back to his struggle for Princess Anne. Ronald Russell approached from behind and punched Ball in the back of the head.
While the former boxer distracted the gunman, Anne reached for the door handle on the opposite side of the backseat. She opened it and pushed her body backwards out of the car.
“I thought that if I was out of the car that he might move,” she said. She was right. As Ball ran around the car towards the princess, she jumped back in with Phillips, shutting the door.
Ronald Russell then punched Ball in the face. More police officers were now witnessing the action.
Princess Anne noticed their presence made Ian Ball nervous. “Go on,” she said. “Now’s your chance.”
He took off running.
Peter Edmonds, a temporary detective constable, had heard Officer Hills’ call regarding the attack.
As he pulled up to the scene in his own car, he saw a man take off with a gun through St. James Park. Edmonds chased Ball, threw his coat over Ball’s head, tackled him and made an arrest.
Authorities found over £300 in £10 notes on his person. Later, they learned that earlier that month, Ball had rented a home on a dead-end road in Hampshire, five miles away from Sandhurst Military Academy, also the home of Princess Anne and Captain Phillips.
Exterior front view of No.3 Christchurch Road, Crouch Hill, London, which was accommodation used by Ian Ball.
Date: 17/05/1974
Home Secretary Roy Jenkins ordered an investigative report for the Prime Minister and told the press that the investigation needed to remain “broadly confidential;” both Scotland Yard and Buckingham Palace refused to comment on specific details.
Journalists scrambled to pull together theories on how a mentally ill, unemployed man could have masterminded a well-funded kidnapping attempt on his own.
Princess Anne chats to her wounded bodyguard, Inspector James Beaton at Westminster Hospital. Inspector James Beaton was injured during Ian Ball’s attempt to kidnap Princess Anne in Pall Mall.
Date: 25/03/1974
Detectives initially feared Ball was part of the IRA but he told officers: ‘I have got no friends. I’m a loner. I put a lot of thought and work into it.
‘I can’t expect people like you to understand or accept that I did it and planned it alone. Do you think I am part of the IRA or something? If there had been anyone else they would have helped me at the scene.’
The Irish Republican Army, also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland.
Detectives initially feared Ball was part of the IRA but he told officers: ‘I have got no friends. I’m a loner. I put a lot of thought and work into it.
‘I can’t expect people like you to understand or accept that I did it and planned it alone. Do you think I am part of the IRA or something? If there had been anyone else they would have helped me at the scene.’
He also told police: ‘I knew [Beaton] would be armed. If his gun had not jammed, I would be dead.’
The Princess’s car was unaccompanied because police did not think the Royal Family was a target. But Ball’s actions led to a major overhaul of security arrangements for all VIPs.
Ball also told police: ‘I knew [Beaton] would be armed. If his gun had not jammed, I would be dead.’
The Princess’s car was unaccompanied because police did not think the Royal Family was a target. But Ball’s actions led to a major overhaul of security arrangements for all VIPs.
An office clerk told a reporter that the police had traced a typewriter that Ball had rented to write the ransom letter.
Papers reported that one line of the letter read “Anne will be shot dead.” Days after the kidnapping attempt, a group calling themselves the Marxist-Leninist Activist Revolutionary Movement sent a letter claiming responsibility to The Times of London.
Scotland Yard dismissed any connection between that group and Ian Ball. Others recognized a familiar theme in the reported content of the ransom letter, in which Ball had allegedly stated that he would donate the Queen’s ransom to the National Health Services.
One month before, a group identifying as the Symbionese Liberation Army had kidnapped Patricia Hearst. In its communication with the Hearst family, the SLA said that they would return the young woman if her family donated what would amount to millions of dollars of food to hungry Californians.
“There is no present indication that this was other than an isolated act by an individual,” Jenkins told the House of Commons. It agreed with his request that the findings of the investigation remain confidential.
Secretary Jenkins told the papers that he ordered an increase in royal protection but refused to comment on the details.
Police files were supposed to remain classified until 2048 but they have been obtained by The Mail following a 7-month Freedom of Information battle.
Buckingham Palace released a statement saying that the royal family “had no intention of living in bullet-proof cages.” Chief among them was Princess Anne, who valued her privacy even after recognizing fortune in escaping unscathed.
The princess recognized in an interview that one’s “greatest danger” is perhaps “the lone nutcases” that “have just got enough” resources to put a crime together. “If anybody was serious on wiping one out, it would be very easy to do.”
When Ian Ball appeared in court on April 4, his lawyer spoke about his history of mental illness, but Ball also gave a statement on what motivated his crime: “I would like to say that I did it because I wished to draw attention to the lack of facilities for treating mental illness under the National Health Service.”
Ian Ball pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping charges. Sentenced to a life term in a mental health facility, he has spent at least part of his internment at Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital.
Even after Ian Ball’s sentencing, the public would know little else about him except for his birth date and birthplace, and eyewitness accounts of his appearance and actions.
In 1983, Ball penned a letter to a member of Parliament in which he claimed that the attempted kidnapping was a hoax, and that he was framed.
Less than 10 years after the botched kidnapping, the press criticized Scotland Yard again for failing to protect the royal family when in July of 1982 an unemployed man scaled the palace walls and snuck into Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom.
The two talked for 10 minutes before the queen could summon help.
The following year, Scotland Yard reorganized the Royalty Protection Branch and placed James Wallace Beaton as its superintendent.
The day after the attack, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips returned to routine at their home on the grounds of Sandhurst: he instructed cadets on the rifle range, and she tended to her horses.
That September, Queen Elizabeth II awarded the George Cross, Britain’s highest civilian award for courage, to Inspector Beaton.
Bodyguard who saved Princess Anne from kidnapper recalls moment he was shot during attack – Mirror Online
She presented the George Medal, the second-highest civilian honor for bravery, to Police Constable Hills and Ronald Russell, and Queen’s Gallantry medals (the third-highest) to Police Constable Edmonds, John Brian McConnell and Alexander Callender. Glenmore Martin received the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct.
