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 As the first blog entry got exhausted. My second book |
| Evolution of Love Part 2 |
| March 20, 1974, started as an ordinary evening for Princess Anne. The 23-year-old royal had just married Captain Mark Phillips four months earlier, and that Wednesday night, they attended a charity film screening in London. Around 8 p.m., they climbed into their maroon Austin Princess limousine marked with the royal insignia and headed back to Buckingham Palace. Anne's lady-in-waiting sat across from the newlyweds, and in the front passenger seat rode Inspector James Beaton, her bodyguard from Scotland Yard's royal protection unit. They were driving down The Mall—the grand ceremonial road leading to the palace—when a white Ford Escort suddenly pulled in front of them and stopped, blocking their path. A man jumped out. His name was Ian Ball, a 26-year-old unemployed laborer from north London. He was carrying two handguns. And he had come to kidnap a princess. Inspector Beaton immediately got out of the car. He assumed this was a traffic dispute, perhaps an angry driver. As he walked around the royal vehicle, Ball raised his pistol and shot him in the shoulder from about six feet away. Beaton stumbled but tried to return fire. His Walther PPK jammed after a single shot. Ball shot him again, this time in the hand and later in the stomach. The chauffeur, Alex Callender, tried to intervene. Ball shot him too. Ball then approached the rear door where Princess Anne sat with her husband. He began firing through the windows, shattering glass. He demanded she get out. He had handcuffs, tranquilizers, and a ransom letter in his car. His plan was to hold her for £2 million—a staggering sum he claimed he would donate to the National Health Service to improve mental health facilities. But Ian Ball had made a fundamental miscalculation. He had assumed Princess Anne would react like someone from a storybook—a damsel in distress, terrified and compliant. He had picked the wrong royal. Anne stared at the armed man trying to drag her from her car and delivered three words that would become legendary: "Not bloody likely." She didn't scream. She didn't panic. She simply refused. When Ball persisted, demanding she come with him, she engaged him in what she later described as "a fairly low-key discussion about the fact that I wasn't going to go anywhere." In interviews years later, Anne downplayed her composure with characteristic British understatement: "He opened the door and we had a sort of discussion about where or where not we were going to go. I was scrupulously polite because I thought it was silly to be too rude at that sort of stage." Scrupulously polite. While being held at gunpoint by a man who had already shot four people. She later added: "I nearly lost my temper with him, but I knew that if I did, I should hit him and he would shoot me." So instead, she kept talking. She kept him distracted. She kept herself alive. Meanwhile, a passing journalist named Brian McConnell had seen the chaos and rushed over to help. Ball shot him in the chest. Police Constable Michael Hills, who had been patrolling nearby and heard the commotion, approached thinking it was a car accident. Ball turned and shot him in the stomach. Before collapsing, Hills managed to radio for backup. That's when Ron Russell arrived. Russell was a 28-year-old company executive driving home from work. He was also a former heavyweight boxer, 6 feet 4 inches tall, built like the athlete he'd been. When he saw the scene unfolding on the side of the road, he assumed it was road rage—just some angry drivers who needed calming down. Then he saw the gun. And he recognized Princess Anne. Russell didn't hesitate. He walked straight up to Ball and punched him twice in the back of the head. Ball spun around and fired at Russell. The shot missed, instead shattering the windscreen of a taxi behind them. Russell positioned himself between Ball and Anne, essentially using his body as a human shield, fully expecting to be shot. "I honestly thought I was going to die," Russell later said. "But I didn't care. I still believe that the life of a member of the Royal Family is much more important than mine." The arrival of more police finally forced Ball to flee. He didn't get far. Detective Constable Peter Edmonds chased him down and arrested him within minutes. When officers searched Ball's car, they found his ransom letter addressed to the Queen, demanding that £2 million be placed in 20 unlocked suitcases, loaded onto a plane to Switzerland, and that Queen Elizabeth herself appear on the plane to verify her signatures on documents. It was a plan both elaborate and completely delusional. Ball was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. Medical evaluation diagnosed him with schizophrenia. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to indefinite detention in Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital. He remains there to this day, though in recent interviews he has bizarrely claimed innocence and insisted the entire thing was a "hoax." But the injuries that night were devastatingly real. Inspector Beaton had been shot three times and had shielded Anne with his body despite his wounds. Chauffeur Callender had been shot in the chest. PC Hills had been shot in the abdomen. Journalist McConnell had been shot in the chest. Miraculously, all four men survived and recovered. The day after the attack—less than 24 hours after nearly being kidnapped—Princess Anne and Captain Phillips returned to their routine. He instructed cadets at Sandhurst. She tended to her horses. The British press marveled at the composure. The world took note. That September, Queen Elizabeth II held a ceremony at Buckingham Palace to honor the seven people who had protected her daughter. She awarded the George Cross—Britain's highest civilian honor for courage—to Inspector Beaton. She presented George Medals to PC Hills and Ron Russell. She awarded Queen's Gallantry Medals to PC Edmonds, journalist Brian McConnell, and chauffeur Alex Callender. When the Queen presented Russell with his medal, she told him something he would remember for the rest of his life: "The medal is from the Queen, but I want to thank you as Anne's mother." The incident fundamentally changed royal security protocols. Before March 1974, protection for royals was relatively light. Inspector Beaton later admitted, "The training was non-existent." After the attack, everything changed. Security was dramatically increased. Training became rigorous. The idea that a member of the royal family could be vulnerable just yards from Buckingham Palace was no longer acceptable. But what really captured public imagination wasn't the security failures or the improved protocols. It was Princess Anne herself. Her response—"Not bloody likely"—became instantly iconic. It was so perfectly, quintessentially British: understated, firm, with just a hint of irritation at the inconvenience. It was the verbal equivalent of keeping a stiff upper lip while someone points a gun at you. It was courage without dramatics, defiance without hysteria. The phrase encapsulated something essential about Anne's character that the public had always sensed but perhaps never seen so clearly demonstrated. Here was a royal who refused to be treated like a helpless ornament. Here was a woman who, at 23, faced a madman with a gun and essentially told him to bugger off. In later interviews, Anne remained characteristically matter-of-fact about the whole affair. She said she was frightened—"I won't mind admitting it"—but that didn't mean she was going to cooperate with being kidnapped. She spoke about briefly considering punching Ball but deciding it would be better to keep talking instead. She described the experience almost as if it were a peculiar social encounter rather than a near-death experience. This wasn't bravado or performance. It was simply who she was. Princess Anne has spent the decades since becoming one of the hardest-working members of the royal family, regularly completing more engagements than any other royal, including at times the Queen herself. She's known for her no-nonsense approach, her refusal to tolerate fuss, and her dedication to duty. She insists on doing her own makeup and hair. She drives herself to engagements. She once told photographers to "naff off" when they annoyed her at a horse trial. But that night in 1974 defined her public image in a way nothing else could. It proved what she'd always maintained: that her job was being a princess, that she took that job seriously, and that she wasn't anyone's victim. Ron Russell kept his George Medal as one of his most treasured possessions for 46 years. When he finally sold it in 2020 due to poor health, he said it was the hardest decision of his life. "It was something I said I would never, ever do. I am so proud and honoured to have done such a thing." Inspector Beaton continued working as Anne's protection officer for another five years before moving on to protect other members of the royal family. He retired after 30 years of distinguished service. The story endures not because of the violence or the danger, but because of three words that perfectly captured a moment, a personality, and a particularly British form of courage. When faced with guns, chaos, and a madman demanding she comply, Princess Anne looked him in the eye and said, "Not bloody likely." And then she didn't move. Sometimes the most powerful act of defiance is simply refusing to cooperate with someone else's plan for you. Sometimes courage sounds like irritation. And sometimes, the most British thing you can do when someone tries to kidnap you is to be scrupulously polite while telling them absolutely not. Princess Anne survived that night because of brave men who risked their lives to protect her. But she also survived because she refused to be anyone's pawn. That refusal, delivered in three calm words, became one of the most memorable moments in modern royal history. Not bloody likely, indeed. |
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