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00:00There's little doubt that Queen Elizabeth is one of the most loved figures in the UK
00:05if not the world.
00:06She has been in the public eye all her life, and has made history as the longest reigning
00:12monarch ever.
00:14In addition to this notable achievement, she is the most traveled world leader.
00:18At 94, she continues to serve her royal engagements, with ties to more than 600 organizations,
00:26including charities, public services, and professional groups.
00:29But being such a well-traveled, familiar, and public figure has its downsides too.
00:35She has been in danger on more than one occasion, from people with sinister motives.
00:40Luckily, in her life, she has often proved herself to be famously cool-headed and resourceful.
00:47As one of the world's most visible and symbolic figures, the Queen has come under some seriously
00:53close calls, as she's literally faced potential life or death threats during her seven decades
00:59of rule.
01:00While some attempts played out in front of the public, others took decades to come to
01:05light to protect the royal family.
01:07In this video, we will show you three attempts at the Queen's life.
01:11Number one, Australia, 1970.
01:15An official royal tour is a much-anticipated event, and in 1970, Queen Elizabeth and her
01:22husband, the late Prince Philip, were on a tour of Australia.
01:26It was on this trip, according to former Detective Superintendent Cliff McCarty, that
01:32an attempt was made on the Queen's life.
01:34For one stretch of their travels, the monarch and her husband were to go by rail.
01:39From Sydney to Orange in New South Wales, on April 29, would-be assassins had placed
01:45a log on the train tracks to derail the locomotive as it neared Lithgow.
01:51Another train had scouted the tracks, an hour before the Queen's train came through, finding
01:56nothing.
01:57So the log's subsequent appearance fueled suspicions there was an assassination plot.
02:02Fortunately for the royal couple, Albert Rowley was at the wheel and spotted the object, pulling
02:08the brakes just in the nick of time.
02:10Since the tracks had been checked just an hour prior to the incident, it's thought
02:15that the log was placed there purposefully and timed to the passing of the royal train.
02:20Had the train been going full speed, it could have derailed and flown into the embankment
02:25experts told.
02:27The news didn't become public until 2009, when a retired detective spoke out about the
02:33incident, breaking the decades of silence agreed upon by the cops and press.
02:38While the royals and the palace reportedly were unaware of the incident, the Telegraph
02:43said that Rowley was given an Imperial Service Medal back, in 1974, in recognition of the
02:50meritorious service, which you have rendered, as the certificate reads.
02:55How it happened
02:57Former Detective Superintendent Cliff McCarty said the unsophisticated plan consisted of
03:02placing a large wooden log across railway tracks near Lithgow in the Blue Mountains
03:08in a bid to derail the royal train.
03:10A newspaper in regional New South Wales, the Lithgow Mercury kept a lid on the story for
03:16the past 40 years because of a police request not to print it.
03:21Details of the alleged conspiracy were kept under wraps to spare the Australian government
03:26any embarrassment, but now the secret is out.
03:30News of the plot has finally emerged because Mr. McCarty, who was the investigating officer
03:35at the time, wants to crack the unsolved mystery saying,
03:39It was one of the big regrets of my police service.
03:43Mr. McCarty, 81, said a catastrophe was only narrowly averted, with the train striking
03:49the log but remaining on the tracks.
03:52Mr. McCarty told he had no idea who was behind the plot and only learned of it the morning
03:58after it occurred, when he was asked to retrieve the log.
04:01He said the NSW government knew of the incident and that federal police and the Queen's security
04:07had been on board the royal train.
04:10While the retired officer said there was little record of the event Lithgow police stations
04:15running sheets from the time would have detailed their inquiries, the Queen and her husband
04:20are said to be unaware to this day that anything untoward happened.
04:25The Lithgow plot, as it was known, occurred midway through the couple's state visit,
04:30as they traveled from Sydney across the Blue Mountains on the Commissioner's train.
04:35On April 29, 1970, the train entered a winding cutting near Lithgow and then struck a large
04:42log that had been wedged across the rails.
04:45The log became stuck under the front wheels, and the train slid for almost 200 meters before
04:51coming to a halt at a level crossing, still on the tracks and largely unscathed.
04:57Police suspected it was an act of sabotage designed to kill or injure the Queen, who
05:03had just celebrated her 44th birthday, and her husband.
05:07If the train had derailed, it would have crashed into an embankment, said Mr. McCarty,
05:13who was in charge of the Lithgow police force for 11 years.
05:17Marks at the scene suggested the log had been rolled onto the tracks and maneuvered into position.
05:23Australian IRA sympathizers were among those suspected of being behind the plot.
05:29Police investigations included an inquiry into possible links with an earlier incident
05:34When detonators were placed in the path of the Royal train as it approached Blackheath,
05:39the Lithgow Mercury reported, Mr. McCarty said details of the incident were covered
05:44up by authorities who put a gag on the release of any information to the media, but the secrecy
05:50also hampered the police investigation.
05:53We never came up with any decent suspects because if we interview people, we seem to
05:59be talking in riddles, Mr. McCarty said.
06:02We couldn't disclose what our inquiries were about.
06:05Perhaps now that the story has gone public, someone might come forward.
06:102. Trooping the Colour, 1981
06:15Trooping the Colour is an annual ceremonial event held in London, and on June 13, 1981,
06:21crowds gathered along the Mall to watch the Queen attending the ceremony on horseback.
06:27In the crowd was a 17-year-old named Marcus Sargent.
06:31As the Queen rode by, he fired six blanks from a starting pistol.
06:36According to reports, the Queen's horse, Burmese, was startled, but the Sovereign managed
06:42to calm him down and rode on.
06:44Sargent was arrested and brought to trial.
06:47He admitted that he wanted to be famous like Mark Chapman, the killer of John Lennon, and
06:52had been inspired by the assassination of John F. Kennedy and John Lennon the year before.
06:59He was sentenced to five years in prison under the Treason Act, given that he had willfully
07:04discharged at or near Her Majesty the Queen a gun with the intent to alarm or distress
07:09Her Majesty.
07:11The extraordinary events of 1981, Trooping the Colour began with the Queen leading the
07:16ceremonial procession along the Mall on horseback.
07:20In a flash, Sargent pointed a pistol directly at her, firing six blank cartridges before
07:26being wrestled to the ground by police.
07:28The Queen remained preternaturally calm, offering her 19-year-old horse Burmese a reassuring
07:34pat before riding on, as cool as a cucumber, as if nothing had happened, her former guard
07:41Alec Galloway recalled at the time.
07:43BBC reports at the time said, she looked shaken by the episode, but soon recovered her composure.
07:50The incident occurred just after 11 a.m., as the Queen dressed in a scarlet military
07:56tunic and a black riding skirt rode from Buckingham Palace past huge crowds along the
08:02tree-lined Mall on her way to the ceremony.
08:05Although the Queen, 55 years old, was never apparently in serious danger, the incident
08:11underscored the difficulty of protecting someone, whose job consists largely of appearing at
08:16public functions.
08:18As millions watched on television, the youth, identified by the police as Marcus Simon Sargent,
08:2417, simply stepped from the crowd and fired directly at the Queen, as many as six times,
08:32before being wrestled to the ground by policemen and onlookers.
08:36Just behind the Queen, who was at the head of the procession, were Prince Philip, her
08:41husband and Prince Charles, her son and heir to the throne.
08:45Afterward, the ceremony proceeded uneventfully.
08:49Mr. Sargent, from the coastal town of Folkestone, was charged under the Treason Act of 1842.
08:56He was scheduled to appear in court and faces a maximum sentence of seven years.
09:02Charged under the 1848 Treason Act, Sargent was jailed for five years.
09:08Described as a shy loner obsessed with the murders of President John F. Kennedy and John
09:13Lennon, the teen had written in his diary,
09:15I am going to stun and mystify the whole world with nothing more than a gun.
09:21I will become the most famous teenager in the world.
09:24It was a testament to her skills as a horsewoman and her unflappable character, because she
09:30did not panic even in the face of what was seemingly an assassination attempt.
09:35You'll see that the professional soldiers riding in the procession panicked much more
09:40than the Queen did.
09:41She was the first to regain control of her horse.
09:45Police and plainclothes bodyguards rushed to the scene and people in the crowd watching
09:50the ceremony screamed, but the Queen retained her composure.
09:55Not only did she get her horse under control and not panic, but it's also important to
10:00remember that the Queen was 55 years old at the time, whereas the soldiers around her
10:05were almost certainly young enough to be her sons.
10:09Reflecting on the incident, during a 2016 BBC documentary, Prince Charles said,
10:15She's a marvellous rider.
10:17She has a marvellous way with horses.
10:20She is made of strong stuff.
10:21You know, the Queen continued to lead the parade with her beloved Burmese until the
10:26horse died in 1986.
10:30The Queen started riding when she was just four years old.
10:33Her grandfather gave her her first pony and was taught to ride sidesaddle as well as conventionally.
10:40Royal historian Hugo Vickers claimed the monarch would have been worried that her son and heir
10:45Prince Charles or her husband Prince Philip had been shot.
10:49Recalling the day, he said,
10:51She must have wondered for a moment if her husband or son or one of her cousins had been
10:56shot behind her.
10:58Charles and Philip were riding behind the Queen, who was on her horse Burmese, during
11:03the parade on June 13, 1981.
11:07The incident raised new fears about security for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady
11:12Diana Spencer on July 29, a month after the shooting.
11:16Some witnesses said that Mr. Sarjeant had a Lady Diana and Prince Charles wedding button
11:21on his jacket.
11:23As for Sarjeant, he was released in October 1984 at the age of 20 and was given a new
11:30identity.
11:31He reportedly wrote to the Queen from prison to apologize, but he never received a reply.
11:37Number 3.
11:38New Zealand, 1981
11:41The Queen again faced an assassination attempt during a visit to New Zealand in 1981 while
11:48visiting a museum in the city of Dunedin.
11:51Four months later, on October 14, 1981, the Queen was visiting New Zealand with Prince
11:57Philip when another 17-year-old had the same idea.
12:02Hiding in an empty toilet stall on the fifth floor of a building in Dunedin, John Lewis
12:07took aim with a rifle just as the Royals got out of a Rolls Royce, fortunately for the
12:13Queen, Lewis missed.
12:15As it turns out, his weapon couldn't have shot so far, and he wasn't exactly in the
12:20best physical location to do so.
12:22It may be the closest anyone has ever come to assassinating Queen Elizabeth II.
12:28In 1981, Christopher John Lewis, a disturbed New Zealand teenager, aimed his .22 rifle
12:37at the British monarch during her tour of the country, lining up her jade outfit in
12:42his scope.
12:43The bullet missed as the government scrambled to conceal how close the self-styled terrorist
12:48had come to killing the head of state.
12:51Two years after shooting at the Queen, the teenager, planning to murder Prince Charles,
12:57attempted to escape from a psychiatric ward.
12:59In 1995, New Zealand police sent him on a taxpayer-funded holiday during the Queen's
13:06November tour, believing him to be safer snoozing on a beach than anywhere within firing distance
13:12of the monarch.
13:14By the age of 17, Lewis had a history of armed robbery, arson, and animal torture.
13:20He idolized the Australian bannet Ned Kelly and American serial killer Charles Manson.
13:27On Wednesday, 14 October 1981, Lewis pulled on gloves and loaded his rifle inside a deserted
13:34toilet cubicle in New Zealand's oldest city, Dunedin, aiming his scope at the Queen's
13:41motor cave five stories below.
13:43Later, police found clippings on the royal family in Lewis' squalid flat, as well as
13:49a detailed map of the Queen's route that day with the words Operation AssQueb written
13:54on the paper.
13:56The Queen had just stepped out of a Rolls-Royce to greet 3,500 well-wishers when a distinctive
14:02crack rang out across the grassy reserve.
14:06According to former Dunedin police det, SGT Tom Lewis, no relation to the shooter, police
14:12immediately attempted to disguise the seriousness of the threat, telling the British press the
14:18noise was a council sign falling over.
14:21Later, under further questioning from reporters, they said someone had been letting off firecrackers
14:27nearby.
14:28According to Tom Lewis, the then Prime Minister Robert Muldoon feared, if word got out about
14:34how close the teenager had come to killing the Queen, the royals would never again visit
14:39New Zealand.
14:40Police interviewed the teenager eight times, during which he claimed he had been instructed
14:45to kill the Queen by an Englishman known to him as the Snowman of whom Lewis was frightened.
14:51The Snowman allegedly told Lewis about the pro-Nazi right-wing National Front in England,
14:57and said Lewis could be part of similar groups that were popping up in New Zealand.
15:02Lewis later claimed to have been visited by high-ranking officials from the government
15:06in Wellington during his 13-day interrogation, and was told never to discuss the incident.
15:13If I was ever to mention the events surrounding my interviews or the organization, or that
15:18I was in the building, or that I was shooting from it, that they would make sure.
15:23I suffered a fate worse than death, Lewis wrote in a draft autobiography found beside
15:28his body after he killed himself.
15:31It was published posthumously.
15:34Though some investigators believed he had wanted to kill the royal couple, he was charged
15:39only with possessing and firing a weapon in public, and sentenced to three years in jail.
15:45Lewis did indeed originally intend to assassinate the Queen, a released memo said.
15:51However, did not have a suitable vantage point from which to fire, nor a sufficiently high-powered
15:56rifle for the range from the target.
15:59Further evidence of Lewis' obsession with the royal family emerged in 1983, when he
16:05attempted to overpower a guard at a psychiatric hospital where he was being detained to assassinate
16:11Prince Charles, who visited the country in April with the Princess of Wales and their
16:16young son William.
16:18Lewis killed himself in prison at the age of 33, while awaiting trial for the murder
16:23of a young mother and the kidnapping of her child.
16:26Shortly before his death, Lewis told his partner about his infamous attempt to assassinate
16:32the Queen of England.
16:34Damn, he told her.
16:35Damn, I missed.
16:37There's no doubt that a degree of risk comes with being out in the public eye, the way
16:41Her Majesty has been for the greater part of a century.
16:45Despite the team she has around her, often the incidents were simply stopped by her own
16:50calm and collective nature.
16:53After all, she's always had her priorities in check, as proven by what she said on her
16:5821st birthday, in 1947, my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your
17:06service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.
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