AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT MADE ON JUNE 13,1981 ON ELIZABETH II

AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT MADE 

ON JUNE 13,1981 ON ELIZABETH II BY TEENAGER MARCUS SARJEANT AGED 17

புகழுக்காக அரசி இரண்டாம் எலிசபெத்தை கொல்ல முயற்சி நடந்தது ஜூன் 13 ,1981

A Teenager's named Sarjeant aged 17 Assassination Attempt on Queen Elizabeth II on June 13, 1981,

it could have all been undone by a teenager. On that day, the Queen was riding her horse on her way to the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony when six shots rang out. She was unharmed, and though her horse was spooked, the sovereign was able to calm him and continue along the parade route.

Security rushed into the crowd to find the would-be assassin wearing a “Charles and Di” pin—and they were surprised to discover that he had fired six blank shots. Seventeen-year-old Marcus Sarjeant was obsessed with the assassination attempts on Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, and idolized Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark David Chapman.

After the attempt on Reagan in March 1981, Sarjeant remarked that he wanted to be the first one to “have a pot-shot” at the Queen. Hoping to reach the same levels of fame as his idols, the teen wrote about his plans to “stun and mystify the world with nothing more than a gun” and even sent photos of himself posing with his father’s revolver to various media outlets prior to the attempt.

Fortunately, Sarjeant was unable to obtain ammunition in the U.K. Instead, he settled for the next best thing by carrying out what the judge later called “a fantasy assassination” via blanks. Sarjeant was sentenced to five years under the 1848 Treason Act, but was released in October 1984. After his time in a psychiatric prison, Sarjeant apparently changed his mind about wanting fame and notoriety. Upon his release, he changed his name, and, according to the BBC, started a new life.

Marcus Sarjeant
Born Marcus Simon Sarjeant
1964 (age 53–54)
Dover, Kent, England
Nationality British
Known for 1981 Trooping the Colour ceremony incident
Marcus Simon Sarjeant (born 1964) is a Briton who fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1981.[1

Background
Sarjeant, who was from Capel-le-Ferne, near Folkestone, Kent, went to Astor Secondary School in Dover. He was a member of the Scouts, becoming local patrol leader before leaving to join the Air Training Corps in 1978. In the ATC, Sarjeant won a marksman's badge, and he owned an air rifle. After leaving school in May 1980 with seven CSE passes, Sarjeant applied to join the Royal Marines but could not accept the discipline and left after three months, claiming that officers bullied him. He also tried to join the Army but stayed only for two days of an induction course.[2]

After failed applications to join the police and the fire service, he worked at a zoo and at an arts centre in Folkestone. Under the Youth Training Scheme he worked at a youth centre in Hawkinge.[3] Friends reported that Sarjeant joined the Anti-Royalist Movement in October 1980. At the time of the incident at the Trooping the Colour, he was unemployed and living with his mother, while his father was working abroad.[3]

He tried unsuccessfully to find ammunition for his father's .455 Webley revolver, and to get a gun licence of his own, he joined a local gun club. Through mail order he paid £66.90 for two blank-firing replica Colt Python revolvers. In the run-up to the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony, Sarjeant sent letters to two magazines, one of which included a picture of him with his father's gun. He also sent a letter to Buckingham Palace which read "Your Majesty. Don't go to the Trooping the Colour ceremony because there is an assassin set up to kill you, waiting just outside the palace". The letter arrived on 16 June,[2] three days after the ceremony.

Trooping the Colour incident

On 13 June 1981, Sarjeant joined the crowds for Trooping the Colour, finding a spot near the junction between The Mall and Horseguards Avenue. When the Queen came past riding her 19-year-old horse Burmese, Sarjeant quickly fired six blanks from his starting pistol. The horse was momentarily startled but the Queen brought her under control; she was unharmed. Nearby service personnel quickly reacted and subdued Sarjeant, who told them "I wanted to be famous. I wanted to be a somebody".[2][4] Corporal Galloway, and McNeill who were closest to Sarjeant, grabbed him by the hair, and pulled him over the crowd control barriers, before wrestling him to the ground and disarming him.[5]

The incident happened fifteen minutes after the Queen's departure from Buckingham Palace. Immediately the Sovereign's Escort was ordered by the Gold Stick-in-Waiting to "close up" around Her Majesty. The Queen continued to Horse Guards Parade.

Investigation

In questioning, Sarjeant said he had been inspired by the assassination of John Lennon in December 1980,[6] and the attempts on the lives of Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. In particular he noted the ease with which Mark David Chapman had become famous after killing Lennon. A friend said that at the time of John Hinckley, Jr.'s attempt on the life of President Reagan, Sarjeant had said "I would like to be the first one to take a pot shot at the Queen".[6] The police found that Sarjeant had written "I am going to stun and mystify the world. I will become the most famous teenager in the world." Investigations by psychiatrists found that Sarjeant did not have any abnormalities within the Mental Health Act 1983.

Trial
Sarjeant became the first person since 1966 to be prosecuted under the Treason Act 1842,[7] and was brought to trial before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, on 14 September 1981. He pleaded guilty, and Lord Lane, in sentencing him to five years' imprisonment, said that "the public sense of outrage must be marked. You must be punished for the wicked thing you did".[8] He was found guilty of an offence under Section Two of the Treason Act in that he "wilfully discharged at or near Her Majesty the Queen a gun with the intent to alarm or distress Her Majesty."[9] Sarjeant appealed against the length of the sentence, but the appeal was refused.[10]

Release
After three years in jail which were mostly spent at Grendon Psychiatric Prison in Buckinghamshire,[11] Sarjeant was released in October 1984 at the age of 20. He changed his name and began a new life.[1]