A few brief moments of panic and alarm highlighted the constant threat to senior members of the royal family during the annual Trooping the Colour parade on June 13th, 1981.
The source of the commotion was a delusional teenager who fired six blank rounds from a replica handgun at the Queen as she rode past on The Mall.
In those days Her Majesty rode on horseback from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade for the annual ceremony marking her official birthday. She was just turning towards the parade ground when 17-year-old Marcus Simon Sarjeant, from Folkestone, in Kent, fired all six blanks from the replica Colt Python revolver.
The Queen's horse, Burmese, was startled by the sudden loud shots, but the Queen – an accomplished horsewoman – quickly brought her mount back under control. She briefly comforted the horse as her mounted escort closed in around her, before riding on. The Queen had ridden the 19-year-old Burmese in birthday parades for a dozen years.
Meanwhile, two burly Scots Guards, a police sergeant and a member of the St John Ambulance Brigade subdued the teenage gunman, who told them: “I wanted to be famous. I wanted to be a somebody.”
He later became the first person since 1966 to be prosecuted under the 1842 Treason Act and was convicted of wilfully discharging a blank cartridge pistol at Her Majesty the Queen with intent to alarm her. During the trial it became apparent that the incident could have been far worse, as the former Air Cadet had initially tried to get hold of a real gun before settling on a blank-firing replica.
He had tried unsuccessfully to find ammunition for a .455 Webley revolver owned by his father, and joined a gun club in an attempt to get a gun licence of his own. When his efforts failed, he instead bought two replica blank-firing Colt Python handguns by mail order. Although they do not fire a bullet, they do make a loud noise similar to a real gun.
Other details to emerge about Sarjeant included that he had previously applied to join the Royal Marines, but left after three months’ training because he could not accept the discipline. He also tried to join the army, but left after two days of an induction course, and failed in applications to join both the police and the fire service. Friends reported that he joined the Anti-Royalist Movement in October 1980 and it emerged that prior to the Trooping the Colour Incident he had sent letters to two magazines, one of which included a photo of himself with his father’s gun.
He also sent a letter to Buckingham Palace in which he wrote: “Your Majesty. Don’t go to the Trooping the Colour ceremony because there is an assassin set up to kill you, waiting just outside the palace”. However, the letter was delayed in the post and did not arrive until three days after the incident.
When questioned by police about his motives, Sarjeant said he had been inspired by the assassination of John Lennon in December 1980, and the instant international notoriety it brought to the assassin, Mark Chapman. When another would-be assassin shot and injured US President Ronald Reagan in March, 1981, Sarjeant told a friend: “I would like to be the first one to take a pot shot at the Queen.” A police search of his home also found that he had written: “I am going to stun and mystify the world. I will become the most famous teenager in the world.”
After pleading guilty at his trial, Sarjeant was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, the Judge telling him that: “The public sense of outrage must be marked – you must be punished for the wicked thing you did.”
After three years in jail, spent mostly in a psychiatric prison, Sarjeant was released at the age of 20. Ironically for someone seeking such notoriety, he changed his name to begin a new life in anonymity.
● Click here to see a short film of the incident and Prince Charles’ reaction to it as part of a tribute to the Queen for her 90th birthday.