Who dared to visit the Queen of Great Britain without an invitation: 10 illegal visits to Buckingham Palace

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It seems difficult to find a more secure building in the world than Buckingham Palace. Many guards protect the peace of the inhabitants outside and, probably, the same number are in the premises of the royal residence. Nevertheless, history knows many cases of illegal entry into the royal chambers. However, it was only in 2007 that it became a criminal offense. However, this fact does not stop the attackers.

Edward Jones

This gentleman seems to have been a great admirer of the young Queen Victoria, into whose chambers he made his way three times. The first time this happened in 1838, when the young burglar was barely 14 years old. The teenager dressed up as a chimney sweep and walked into the rooms of the young queen completely unhindered, and before he was noticed, Edward Jones had time to get his hands on Victoria's underwear. The boy tried to flee, but the police detained him, and took away the prey. True, the court did not find anything in the teenager's actions that he should have been sent to prison for.

Two years later, Edward Jones returned to just walk around the palace grounds. It seems that at that time he was simply developing a plan for another penetration, the implementation of which was not long in coming. Now the young man hid under the king's bed, got acquainted with Victoria's personal correspondence and made an audit of her things. And even overheard the Queen's conversation with Prince Albert. And only after that his presence was discovered. The young man was seen more than once on his way to Buckingham Palace, but they managed to detain him before he entered its territory.

Michael Fagan

In the middle of the summer of 1982, an unemployed Irishman, being heavily drunk, made a bet with his buddies that he could get into the bedroom of Queen Elizabeth II. He got to Buckingham Palace by taxi at about seven in the morning, just climbed over the fence, climbed the drainpipe to the balcony, where he spotted the open door and entered the royal chambers without hindrance. Surprisingly, the security officers considered the triggered alarm to be an error and did not check the area.

Michael Fagan walked around the premises and soon was already standing in one of the queen's rooms. And again, a rare success: the change of the guard ended, and the footman went to walk the royal corgi. The troublemaker managed to break a crystal vase and cut himself, and then found himself in front of the bed of Elizabeth II.

There are two versions of the further development of events. According to the first, the drunk offender was in the bedroom for at least 10 minutes, complaining to the queen about his failed life. Only after the criminal demanded a cigarette and the queen sent a maid for it, the alarm was raised, and the returned footman began to negotiate with the criminal before the arrival of the police. According to another version, Elizabeth II, barely seeing a drunk man, immediately ran out of the room and called for help.

The offender was subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and during treatment it turned out that a month before the events described, he was already in the palace, walked through the royal chambers, treated himself to snacks and left unnoticed. Only the maid saw him, but the guards did not find anyone and convinced the girl that she was mistaken.

Night Travelers

For some reason, young people who are not too sober are constantly trying to enter the royal residence. In the summer of 2016, at different times, two young men, both 22 years old, overcame the fence and tried to get into the palace, but were detained. At the same time, they could not clearly formulate the purpose of their illegal visit. Fortunately, in both cases, members of the royal family were not present at the residence.

Denise Hennessy

A man who had previously served a sentence for a serious crime made the royal guard quite worried. On that ill-fated day in 2016, Hennessy, having consumed a large amount of alcohol and added soft drugs to it, found himself on the territory of the royal residence and even found a guard himself, asking whether "is madam at home." On alarm, members of the royal family who were in the palace, including Elizabeth II herself, were quickly taken to safety. True, it turned out that there was no threat to their lives, and Denis Hennessy did not even remember how and why he had come here. As a result, the intruder simply apologized to the guards and praised the views, but then still went to jail for 4 months for breaking into the royal residence.

Stephen Lawlor

A man without a definite place of residence, behind whose shoulders there were already 70 convictions, did not find anything better than … to sleep off in Buckingham Palace. He simply broke a display case in one of the halls and arranged a sleeping place from a cabinet that stood there. The guards found the offender at about five in the morning and handed him over to the police. For the next 49 days, he was provided with a place to sleep in a prison cell.

The last case

In the summer of 2019, a 22-year-old man, whose name has not been released, climbed over the fence at two in the morning and went straight to Buckingham Palace. He walked past thermal sensors and security cameras, and the guards detained him only four minutes later. And this despite the fact that armed guards are on duty at the royal residence around the clock.

It seems that the very atmosphere of the official residence of British monarchs contributes to the fact that visitors involuntarily straighten their backs and behave almost perfectly. But sometimes even celebrities who visit Buckingham Palace have an irresistible urge to "play pranks". Later, with some degree of pride, they admit that they allowed themselves to violate decency in this particular place.