Terror on a London Mall

To Britons, assassination is a foreign word, a foreign act.

Author Brian McConnell wrote that sentence in a 1969 book called Assassination, and he did so with considerable evidence to back it up: though shooting incidents had been gradually increasing in Britain, guns and political terrorism were still notably scarce in British life. One evening last week in London, McConnell was given a persuasive reason to reconsider his analysis. As he was riding in a cab near Buckingham Palace, a white British Ford in front of him veered to the left, forcing a maroon Austin Princess limousine to a halt. On top of the limousine, visible from front and rear, was a shield displaying the royal coat of arms. Inside were Princess Anne and her husband of four months, Captain Mark Phillips.

As passing pedestrians and motorists watched in horror, a tall, thin young gunman with clipped chin whiskers leaped from the Ford and raced toward the limousine, firing two pistols as he ran. One shot struck the limousine driver, who collapsed. A bodyguard sitting next to the chauffeur jumped from the front seat with an automatic pistol. He fired one shot, missing; then his weapon jammed. Three quick rounds felled him. The gunman dashed to the limousine and began pulling violently on the doors, trying to get inside. On the back seat huddled Anne, her husband, and a lady in waiting, Rowena Brassey.

Writer McConnell jumped out of his taxi and ran up to the gunman. Despite the bloodshed and the gunman's frantic attempts to force his way into the royal limousine, McConnell remembers saying with typical British cool: "Look, old man, these people are friends of mine. Don't be silly, just give me the gun." He moved forward to take the weapon, when suddenly "there was a blinding flash, and I remember thinking, 'Christ, the bastard's shot me.' "

Within moments the assailant had also shot a policeman who was dashing to the rescue. At the sight of a second constable, Peter Edmonds, 24, the gunman fled into St. James's Park, which flanks the Buckingham Palace Mall. Edmonds, who was unarmed, brought him down with a flying rugby tackle. A young woman rushed up to the Austin and asked Anne, "Are you all right, love?" Though severely shaken, she replied, "Yes, I'm fine, thank you." A bullet through the rear window marked how close they had come to death. It was the first attack on the royal family since 1939, when shots were fired at the Duchess of Kent.

Within a short time, the princess was carrying on in stiff-upper-lip fashion, issuing a statement in which she expressed concern for those hurt in the incident: McConnell, 46; the driver, Alec Callender, 55; the bodyguard, James Beaton, 30; and the policeman, Michael Hills, 22. All were later reported in satisfactory condition.

The gunman was identified as Ian Ball, 26, who apparently had hoped to kidnap the princess. In his car, police found a neatly typed but disjointed letter full of grievances against the royal family. The letter asked the Queen for a ransom of -L-2 million ($4.7 million). Scotland Yard immediately launched an investigation to discover any possible accomplices; preliminary evidence indicated that Ball had acted alone.

Any would-be assailant could have learned where Anne and her husband were to be on the day of the attack by the simple expedient of reading the "Court Circular," a chronicle of the royal family's activities that is published in a number of London papers. Such publicity will doubtless now be limited, and extra protection has already been assigned to the royal family. Nevertheless, there is still understandable resistance to change the traditions of centuries. The royal family has "no intention of living in bulletproof cages," said a palace spokesman. After all, pointed out Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, "it is not possible for public figures to make public appearances clandestinely, so to speak."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.