HOW SHE FOILED A KIDNAPPER

On 20 March, 1974, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips (right) were being driven back to Buckingham Palace after an event when a Ford Escort blocked their Rolls-royce on the Mall. Armed fantasist Ian Ball was enacting his plan to kidnap the princess. When her protection officer, Inspector Jim Beaton, got out to intervene, Ball shot him in the shoulder. Insp Beaton’s pistol jammed, but he remained in front of the princess and was shot twice more.

The chauffeur, a policeman patrolling nearby and a passing journalist were shot as they tried to stop Ball dragging the princess out by the arm. But Capt Phillips was holding firm to the other arm, and Princess Anne was refusing to budge. Now she reveals it was down to her equestrian training. ‘Strangely, I had thought about it before. One of the things about horses and sport is you have to prepare for the unexpected. So to some extent that coloured my thoughts.’ To this day, she can remember it all – sort of. ‘I thought I remembered everything, but I was never able to swear I remember it all in order because they were like snapshots,’ she says.

Ball fled, but was tackled by another policeman. He was sentenced to life in prison. The wounded men were decorated by the Queen. Insp Beaton received the George Cross and he credits the princess with preventing tragedy: ‘She was so cool, calm and collected, it kept the situation within control.’ Her biographer, Brian Hoey, offers a further reason for her resolve: ‘She said, “I was so annoyed he tore the sleeve out of my dress – and it was a good new dress!”’