Not b***** likely! How straight-talking Princess ‘Sourpuss’ Anne found her road to redemption - and it all started with a bizarre kidnap attempt 50-years ago this month…
Dismissed as arrogant and entitled, Princess Anne had nothing like the reputation for diligent hard work that makes her, today, one of the most popular figures not just in the Royal Family, but the country.
She found the newly invented royal walkabouts, designed to bring royalty closer to the people, a difficult chore, allegedly telling one little boy he was ‘a silly bugger’.
A noted equestrian, she also hated the ever-present photographers at horse trials. If they came to close for comfort she was famed for telling them to ‘Naff off’ or ‘sod off’ often adding a few other ‘offs’ for good measure.
For most of the 1970s she became the royal whipping boy for the press. Legendary Daily Mirror agony aunt Margery Proops once compared the royal siblings in an article headlined: ‘Love Him: Hate Her!’
Just four months after their wedding at Westminster Abbey, Anne and her first husband Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace, along the Mall, following an engagement in the City.
Suddenly their Austin Princess limousine screeched to a halt when Ian Ball, a 26-year-old unemployed labourer, swerved his Ford Escort in front of the royal car. Ball shot four people including Anne’s chauffeur and her protection officer.
When details of the Mall shooting emerged, Anne’s calmness in the face of danger, impressed her critics. She recalled the events a decade later to chat show host Michael Parkinson. Ball “said I had to go with him. I said I didn’t want to. I was scrupulously polite.’ (Although in fact no-nonsense Anne had said ‘not bloody likely’.)
Rather than giving an ‘oh poor me’ account, the princess had Parky’s audience in stitches when she revealed that when the gunman grabbed her arm ‘the back of my dress split from top to bottom, all the shoulders went actually. That was his most dangerous moment.’
Clearly the would-be kidnapper had met his match. As Prince Philip joked later: ‘If the man had succeeded in abducting Anne, she’d have given him the hell of a time while in captivity.’
Princess Anne was, in those early days, the worst possible example of an entitled aristocrat but she dropped the “hoity-toity” and got on with her charity projects.
Princess Ann maybe the hardest working royal but that is a poor comparison
The rest barring King Charles do even less
Of course they don’t work hard .
They don’t actually work at all .
Everyone knows that they attend engagements which last about 20 minutes to an hour max .
They don’t answer to bosses , have to work 9- 5 at a daily grind in a boring job .
They don’t have to struggle on tthe daily comute, juggle childcare or get home tired and have to do household chores - all to make a living and pay the mortgage .
As for plain speaking this means plain rudeness is anyone else’s language .
It’s easy to be rude as was her rude old Dad when the other person doesn’t answer back .
This is not to deride her personal qualities .
She has courage it take guts to jump horses over big fences and tell would be kidnappers to naff off .
But let’s not have any silly BS nonsense about work .
I suppose you could say Anne’s the epitome of the ‘stiff upper lip’, but she must have been relieved when Princess Diana appeared on the scene and all media interest was focused on her.
I remember the story of the attempted kidnap of Princess Anne when it was first reported - when the would-be kidnapper told her get out of the car, she told him “Not bloody likely!”
Security in those days was not as “professional” as it is now - and the attempt to kidnap her was quite amateurish too.
I also remember seeing a documentary about how media editors manipulated public opinion regarding the Royal Family.
One retired photographer who used to work for The Sun tabloid “newspaper” recalled how the Editor used to tell the photographers which “Royal” they should t target for unflattering photos and which “Royal” they had to provide flattering photos for.
At one time, The Editor had told him and the other photographers to go out of their way to look for opportunities to photograph Princess Anne in unflattering situations and try to make photos of her look as bad as possible - and they didn’t disappoint!
After hounding and harassing her for some time, reducing the public image of Anne to an all-time low, the photographers eventually got a message telling them they could back off Princess Anne now and give her a break.
I don’t know if this coincided with her attempted kidnap or not - I presumed the timing coincided with the public getting bored with the same old gossip and the “The Sun” Editor had found a new quarry in the Royal Family to hunt down and denigrate for the entertainment of the public.
Apparently, the gun of her protection officer jammed when he drew it due to lack of use. It was a semi-automatic pistol, but hadn’t been fired in so long that the magazine spring had become week and failed to push a round fully into the chamber, jamming it and rendering it to use only as a lightweight club.
After that, revolvers were issue as standard for a while because they didn’t suffer that kind of problem, and then protection officers were required to actually fire their guns in practice on a regular basis after semi-automatic pistols were re-introduced.
Incidentally, Constable PC Trevor Lock, one of the heroes of the Iranian Embassy siege was armed with a revolver that he managed to keep hidden from the terrorists until the SAS came a calling.
Possibly a Webley .455, usually issued to Ossifers. Very effective at close range, but not very accurate otherwise, assuming of course that your Dad was not on the side of the Axis forces.
No he was in the Medical Corps. However we did have a Luger until it was given up at one of the gun amnesties as well as Lee Enfield long sniper rifle from WWI.
