On the evening of 20 March 1974, the limousine in which Princess Anne and her husband were driving to Buckingham Palace from a charity screening was attacked in an attempt to abduct the princess

The royal car's path was blocked by a white Ford Escort, from which a man armed with two pistols swiftly emerged and shot the princess's only bodyguard, Scotland Yard Inspector James Beaton, wounding him in the shoulder. The armoured limousine was locked from the inside, so the attacker tried to break down the door, until the princess's lady-in-waiting ran out of the rear door, where the wounded bodyguard came running up, only to take two more bullets, in the arm and the stomach, and fall bleeding onto the asphalt. When the chauffeur tried to stop the gunman, he too was shot in the stomach.

As it later emerged, this was a 26-year-old deranged unemployed man, Ian Ball of north London. He forced his way into the car and seized the princess by the shoulder, demanding that she get out; her husband held her by the waist, while the princess, in a torn dress, calmly declared that she had no intention of getting out. Ball shot yet another policeman in the stomach, who had hurried to the scene. Two passing drivers joined the scuffle: a former boxer, who started fighting Ball, and a driver who blocked the escape route of the criminal's Ford and tried to help the wounded officer. A Daily Mail journalist, John Brian McConnell, happened to be nearby and tried to talk the madman into laying down his weapon, but was wounded.

By this time the police had cordoned off the spot, but no one dared approach the armed man threatening the princess. Anne made a diversionary manoeuvre, opening the opposite door of the car and stepping out, so that Ball would run towards her; at that moment the boxer stunned him from behind.

Realising that his attempt had failed, the madman took to his heels towards St James's Park, pursued and overtaken by Constable Peter Edmonds. In the criminal's car were found two pairs of handcuffs, tranquillisers and a ransom letter, in which he criticised the royal family and demanded £2 million in small notes, in 20 suitcases, aboard an aeroplane, with the Queen herself present.

That evening the princess was guarded by only one policeman, but the Queen, too, then travelled about the city with a single bodyguard. Seven grown men tried to thwart the mentally ill kidnapper: three policemen, two chauffeurs, one former boxer and a tabloid journalist; yet the 23-year-old princess herself made considerable efforts and showed courage in the fight for her life.

Ball was sentenced to life detention in a psychiatric hospital. Princess Anne and her husband, Captain Mark Phillips, returned to their ordinary life the very next day. Police Inspector James Wallace Beaton was awarded the George Cross; Police Constable Michael Hills and the former boxer Ronald Russell the George Medal; the chauffeur Alexander Callender, Detective Constable Peter Edmonds and the journalist John Brian McConnell the Queen's Gallantry Medal; and the chauffeur Glenmore Martin a commendation from the Queen for brave conduct.