Michael Fagan incident

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Michael Fagan was the intruder who broke into Buckingham Palace and entered Queen Elizabeth II's bedchamber in the early hours of July 9, 1982. The unemployed, Irish father of four children managed to evade electronic alarms, palace and police guards.

This actually had been his second successful attempt to break into Buckingham Palace. Upon his first attempt, he took a bottle of wine and left.

On the second attempt, an alarm sensor actually had gone off upon detecting him. A worker in the Palace thought it had happened by accident, so he silenced the alarm, Fagan having gone unnoticed.

On his way to see the Queen, he had lacerated his hand on some broken glass, leaving it bloodied.

The Queen woke when he disturbed a curtain after which he sat on the edge of her bed talking to her for about ten minutes; the Queen was only able to raise the alarm when he asked for a cigarette. She calmly called for a footman who allegedly held the intruder until police arrived. The incident happened as the armed police officer outside the royal bedroom came off duty before his replacement arrived. He had been out walking the Queen's dog.

The incident caused shock to all, as one unarmed man could manage not only to enter the Palace but even went as far as to see the Queen herself while she was asleep. However, the Queen's calm nature had become better noted. She was calm even upon seeing in her room a strange man with a bloodied hand, and remained calm while conversing with Fagan for about ten minutes.

Since it was then a civil wrong rather than a criminal offence, Michael Fagan was not charged for trespassing in the Queen's bedroom.

He was however charged with theft, but the charges were dropped when he was committed for psychiatric evaluation.

In 1984 aggravated trespass or the act of trespass with the intent to disrupt or obstruct a lawful activity became a criminal offence.

[edit] Fictionalised references

There is an oblique or fictionalised reference to this incident in the lyrics of the song The Queen is Dead (written by Morrissey and Marr) from the album of the same name released by The Smiths in 1986: "So I broke into the palace / With a sponge and a rusty spanner. / She said 'ah I know you and you cannot sing,' / I said 'that's nothing - you should hear me play piano.'"

Another reference occurred in Tom Clancy's novel Rainbow Six, where former SAS soldier Eddie Price recalled his unit's shocked response to the security lapse.

In 1983 Michael Fagan recorded a version of the Sex Pistols song "God Save The Queen" with British band The Bollock Brothers.