52-year anniversary A RIGHT ROYAL KIDNAPPING!

ANNE TOLD GUNMAN 'NOT BLOODY LIKELY' IN KIDNAP ATTEMPT

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On March 20, 1974, Princess Anne was 23 years old and reveling in her life as a newlywed, having married Captain Mark Phillips four months earlier.

The couple had spent the evening at a charity fundraiser and were on their way to Buckingham Palace when, without warning, their lives took a near-fatal turn.

Anne, Mark, her lady-in waiting, chauffeur Alexander Callender and Royal Protection Officer Inspector James Wallace Beaton, were less than 200 metres from the palace, when a white Ford Escort overtook their car and stopped, blocking their path.

Inspector Beaton, a member of Scotland Yard’s special operations branch, described the moment he first laid eyes on the princess’ would-be kidnapper, Ian Ball.

“I got out of the car, and he shot at me,” Inspector Beaton told the BBC. “We had no communications in the car – we were on our own.

“I got down level with the car and I heard Princess Anne saying to Ball, ‘Why do you want me?’ She was cool, calm and collected,” he recalled.