“The most ghastly day of my life.”
Queen Elizabeth has revealed that the IRA’s attack on London in 1982 was “the most ghastly day of my life”.
The events, which involved bombs going off in Hyde Park and Regent’s Park killed 11 soldiers and seven horses.
Andrew Parker Bowles, who was in charge of the royal household cavalry that day, has opened up for the first time.
The first bomb was detonated during a Changing of the Guard ceremony in Whitehall, killing four soldiers and seven horses.
A couple of hours later, a second bomb went off under the bandstand at Regent’s Park where the Royal Green Jackets played to 120 people.
That blast killed seven members of the band, and wounded the rest.
Parker Bowles, who was married to Camilla at the time, said:
“It was a nice, sunny day and suddenly one heard this explosion one heard all the time in Northern Ireland.”
“One of the barriers opened and someone said, ‘They’ve blown up the Guard’. So we ran down to where the smoke was rising.”
“The first horse I saw was Sefton. He had a bloody great hole in him but he managed to pull through.”
Later on that day, Parker Bowles spoke to the Queen, who did not mince her words.
He said: “She said to me it was ‘The most ghastly day of my life’.”
