{"id":607,"date":"2024-09-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/?p=607"},"modified":"2025-04-25T23:33:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T23:33:23","slug":"how-a-teenager-tried-shooting-the-queen-during-her-birthday-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/14\/how-a-teenager-tried-shooting-the-queen-during-her-birthday-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"How a teenager tried shooting the Queen during her birthday parade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
Marcus Sarjeant has since changed his name (Pictures: PA\/Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been over two years since Queen Elizabeth<\/a> died peacefully aged 96. But she had an almost close brush with death 41 years earlier.<\/p>\n

During the Trooping the Colour parade in June 1981, a teenager fired six blank shots at the Queen as she rode her horse down The Mall.<\/p>\n

The incident made headlines around the world, with the Queen visibly shaken as her horse Burmese was spooked by the gunfire.<\/p>\n

The would-be assassin, 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant, had travelled to London<\/a> for the parade with the intent to kill the Queen. <\/p>\n

In the days leading up to the parade, he had sent a threatening letter to Buckingham Palace reading: \u2018Your Majesty. Don’t go to the Trooping the Colour ceremony because there is an assassin setup to kill you, waiting just outside the palace.\u2019<\/p>\n

But the letter didn\u2019t arrive until days after the parade, meaning the Queen was unaware of any threat when she mounted her horse that day.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"The\t<\/div>
The Queen’s horse was spooked after the shots were fired (Picture: PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n\t\t\"Detective\t<\/div>
Detective inspector Ian Blair with the ‘starting pistol’ used by Marcus Sarjeant to fire blank shots at The Queen (Picture: PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sarjeant had joined an anti-royalist movement in 1980 in Folkestone, Kent, and was unemployed and living with his mum when he travelled to London.<\/p>\n

Armed with two blank-firing replica Colt Python revolvers, Sarjeant positioned himself near the junction between The Mall and Horseguards Road, then fired six blanks.<\/p>\n

He was tackled to the ground by Lance Corporal Alec Galloway of the Scots Guards and disarmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

There is an assassin setup to kill you, waiting just outside the palace.\u2019<\/p>\n

Quote<\/title><title>Quote<\/title><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As he was being subdued, Sarjeant said: \u2018I wanted to be famous. I wanted to be somebody.\u2019<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2>\n\t\t\t\tLatest London news\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/20\/huge-fire-engulfs-two-flats-east-london-block-22940983\/\">Huge fire engulfs two flats in east London block<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/03\/27\/fungus-infected-zombie-spiders-invaded-london-22801577\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/03\/29\/heathrow-airport-face-disruption-easter-strikes-announced-22815826\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/20\/chinese-spies-bugging-londons-pubs-park-benches-security-sources-say-22940560\/\">Chinese spies are \u2018bugging London\u2019s pubs and park benches,\u2019 security sources say<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/01\/three-killed-car-crashes-bus-sparks-huge-inferno-22826874\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/01\/three-killed-car-crashes-bus-sparks-huge-inferno-22826874\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/08\/inside-plans-revamp-london-liverpool-street-station-22872616\/\">Inside the plans to revamp London Liverpool Street station<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro’s<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/london\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> London news hub<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He told police he was inspired by the assassination of John Lennon and the attempted murders of Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II in the same year. <\/p>\n<p>Sarjeant was prosecuted under the Treason Act and pleaded guilty, before being sentenced to five years in prison on September 14, 1981. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"646\" height=\"664\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-21592105 lazyload\" alt=\"Marcus Simon Sarjeant, 17, from Folkestone, Kent, who was charged under the Treason Act 1842 after blank shots were fired at the Queen during the Trooping the Colour Ceremony in London. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SEI_221251773-3d39-e1726135270614.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>This is the only publicly released photo of Marcus (Picture: PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"646\" height=\"433\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-21592094 lazyload\" alt=\"Queen Elizabeth II riding sidesaddle on 'Burmese', a gift from the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, during the Trooping the Colour ceremony on Horse Guards Parade, London, England, Great Britain, 13 June 1981. The 1981 ceremony saw Marcus Serjeant fire six blank cartridges at the Queen as she turned down Horseguards Parade for the start of the Trooping the Colour ceremony. (Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SEI_221251792-5215.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>The Queen often rode her horse Burmese (Picture: Tim Graham Photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He was released in October 1984, when he was 20. He changed his name and began a new life – but wrote to the Queen to apologise for the incident. Sarjeant didn\u2019t receive a reply to his letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>An apology that was never reciprocated <\/h2>\n<p>Before he was convicted, his grandmother Sylvia told the Mail: ‘I love the Royal Family – every one of them, especially the Queen and the Queen Mother, and I am heartbroken that my grandson should be charged with something like this.’  <\/p>\n<p>Queen Elizabeth was lucky that his gun was not loaded – but it\u2019s not the first time she\u2019s been at the centre of an assassination attempt.<\/p>\n<p>In 1971, a log was placed on railroad tracks in hopes of de-railing the Queen\u2019s train as she travelled through Australia. Luckily the conductor saw the log and stopped the train before disaster struck. <\/p>\n<p>Months after the 1981 Trooping the Colour incident another 17-year-old shot at the queen when she was visiting New Zealand. <\/p>\n<p><strong><strong><strong>Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:webnews@metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\">webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For more stories like this, <\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marcus Sarjeant has since changed his name (Pictures: PA\/Getty) It\u2019s been over two years since Queen Elizabeth died peacefully aged 96. But she had an almost close brush with death 41 years earlier. During the Trooping the Colour parade in June 1981, a teenager fired six blank shots at the Queen as she rode her <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/14\/how-a-teenager-tried-shooting-the-queen-during-her-birthday-parade\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.highschoolhypnotist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}