Queen Elizabeth II: Three Times The Late Queen Survived Assassination Attempts On Her Life

• Queen Elizabeth II passed away peacefully on September 8, 2022, after 70 years as British monarch
• Despite clocking 96 years, there were many attempts on her life, three of which have been documented
• YEN.com.gh digs into the past to bring out the three times the late Queen survived bizarre assassination attempts on her life

While many people adored the late Queen Elizabeth II in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world, she had enemies who even tried to assassinate her.

There are reports that the late Queen escaped many attempts on her life before she died in her sleep at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

However, YEN.com.gh has found three documented assassination attempts on the life of the late monarch, who ruled gracefully for 70 years before she passed away on September 8, 2022, at 96.

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Here are the three documented assassination attempts on Queen Elizabeth II and how she escaped them unscratched:

Bizarre Train Track Incident In Australia In 1970

According to the Australian news organisation ABC News, one of the first attempts on the late Queen's life happened in 1970 when she and her husband, Prince Philip, were on a tour of Australia.

The story is that the would-be assassins placed a big log on the tracks of a train that the Queen and her entourage were travelling on from Sydney to Orange in New South Wales on April 29, 1970.

Although a smaller train had earlier scouted the tracks as part of safety measures, later, while the Queen was on her scheduled trip, her train struck a log. The incident did not result in significant calamity because the train was travelling very slowly. Subsequent investigations pointed to a plot to derail the Queen's train, but no one was ever arrested for the alleged plot. The story only came to light in 2009 when Detective Superintendent Cliff McHardy spoke about it on his retirement. He claimed the government had successfully covered up the story up until then to avoid embarrassment.

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Six Shots Fired At The Queen In London

The Queen also faced an assassination attempt from a 17-year-old British boy, Marcus Sarjeant. 'The History of Yesterday' called that incident "the most bizarre attempt to becoming famous."

During the 1981 ceremonial Trooping the Colour in London, a huge crowd gathered to watch the Queen take part in the annual event.

But the 17-year-old, who was in the crowd, had a sinister plan. While the Queen was on horseback, he fired six blanks from a starting pistol as the Queen rode by.

According to reports, the Queen's horse, Burmese, was startled, but then she managed to calm him down and rode on.

Sarjeant was later arrested and brought to trial, where he told interrogators that he tried to take the Queen's life because he wanted to be famous. He said he drew inspiration from the assassination of John Lennon the year before. He was later sentenced to five years in prison.

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New Zealand Attempt On The Queen's Life

A few months after the London assassination attempt by the 17-year-old Briton, Queen Elizabeth II faced another attempt on her life in New Zealand in 1981.

While the Queen was visiting a museum in the city of Dunedin in New Zealand, another 17-year-old, Christopher John Lewis, fired out of a window as she alighted from her vehicle.

Reports indicate that he missed, although witnesses reported hearing a "loud crack."

Young Lewis was arrested eight days later and served three years, partly in a psychiatric facility.

Queen Elizabeth’s Historic Visits To Ghana In Ten Rare Photos

YEN.com.gh reported in a previous story that while the late Queen Elizabeth II visited several countries worldwide in 1961, the most notable of all these visits was the one to Ghana.

Before she left on the trip, members of the UK Parliament and the public did not want her to go due to rising tensions in Ghana, where Kwame Nkrumah had toppled the colonial government a few years earlier.

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The UK Parliament was concerned that her visit could prove too dangerous. But her trip was successful. According to Biography, from the moment Elizabeth arrived in Ghana, along with Prince Philip, she was surrounded by crowds and excitement.

Source: YEN.com.gh