Hyde Park Bombing in 1982

Irish Stamp

Irish Stamp

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Just heard this mentioned in relation to the death of horses in the Royal Cavalry.

Do any forumites have any further info on this?
 
From memory Martin, it was about 20 years ago, the bomb was detonated in a bandstand in the park as a parade?? went by, some of the horses were killed I can't remember if any of the soldiers lost their lives.

Sticks in my memory as our eldest daughter was on a school trip to London and I am sure you can understand our fears as the news came through.
 
Thank God you're only enquiring about events past. When I read the thread title I thought something must have happened there last night.

I regret to say that in the original bombing some soldiers did indeed lose their lives, but I don't recall the details.
 
2 bombs - one under the bandstand - one packed in a van as the horses went past. Sefton was the well known Household Cavalry horse who survived. He lived out his life with a police horse who was also there, who although physically uninjured was so traumitised was never able to work again. I remember it very well. One story of a passer by hodling onto one of the musicians as he passed away trying to comfort him that he would be okay, and the pictures of the horses lying uncovered for so long in the road.............................terrible day.
 
There was a BBC programme about the Household Cavalry and the Blues & Royals only a few nights ago, very interesting stuff showing young chaps starting out with the horses, etc. The horses are Irish Drafts, bought rough and ready to be broken in from Ireland. The officers then have 'first dibs' at who takes what. The HC favour the chargers, all black, the B&R the lighter weights, mostly bays. Showed them starting on their training and then the full monty, in gleaming regalia, on Queen protection duty during street parades.

The Hyde Park bomb also maimed many sight-seers - I recall one middle-aged woman had a foot blown off, as well as blowing the feet and legs off some of the horses. Some terrible personal stories: if I recall correctly, one of the young soldiers had only been married a short while.

As Hunneyb says, SEFTON became a mascot for survival, bearing some 30+ pieces of shrapnel imbedded all over his head and body. He lived to be some vast age, though, and was regularly visited and sent cards by admiring children for years. I didn't know there was a book about it. That would be worth having, I imagine.
 
Interestingly Kri, the Met's police horses aren't all Irish Draught - they tend to favour an ID/TB mix. My aunt is on her 2nd horse from the Met; sadly her first horse from them, Rebel, was killed in a freak accident when he was struck by lightning.

Coincedentally enough, after Rebel was killed and she had taken on Trojan she was given an official photo of Diana's funeral parade by the Met - both Rebel & Trojan took part in the parade & are in the photo! This photo is now blown up, framed & has pride of place in her house.
 
"This photo is now blown up... " that fucking IRA! Is nothing sacred? :angy:

Cheers, Shadz. Great stuff.
 
Detective Inspector John Stevens was one of the first police officers to see the carnage of the IRA Hyde Park bombing in 1982:

Men and horses lay dead and dying in the park

WE came on a scene of appalling devastation in the South Carriageway, on the bottom edge of the park.

A bomb loaded with 4in and 6in nails had been detonated by remote control in a blue Morris Marina, just as the Queen’s Lifeguard, a detachment of the Household Calvary, was passing on its way from Knightsbridge Barracks to Horse Guards Parade. Men and horses lay dead or dying, and more than twenty people, as well as several horses, had been severely injured.

The regimental farriers, who had sprinted from their barracks when they heard the explosion, were splashed with blood from head to foot on their bare torsos and long leather aprons. Debris was scattered everywhere, and human remains were being taken away. The atmosphere was desperately tense, for there was every chance that a second bomb might go off.

The regiment’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Parker-Bowles, had raced to the scene on foot, and as he arrived had met a groom leading a severely wounded horse, which had blood gushing from a huge hole in its neck.

Immediately he told the man to take off his shirt and stuff it into the wound — but that was impossible, for one of the groom's hands had been pierced by a four-inch nail, which was sticking out on both sides. Another man sacrificed his shirt and staunched the blood. But for that, the horse would never have reached its stable. It survived and became a hero — Sefton — and lived to the age of thirty.

At the scene itself mortally injured horses were still struggling to get up. The only weapon to hand was a pistol belonging to a constable on duty at a nearby diplomatic post, and as he had no experience of shooting horses, Parker-Bowles persuaded him to hand the gun over to one of the farriers, who put two horses out of their misery.

With commendable courage and presence of mind, the colonel then ordered that the bodies of the horses should be left uncovered until press photographers arrived, to make sure that their pictures would expose the full horror of the attack. Then, mercifully, the corpses were shrouded with tarpaulins.

Hardly had we taken in what had happened when news came down from a police helicopter overhead of a second explosion, this time in Regent's Park.

We fought our way through the choked traffic and arrived at another dreadful scene of death and destruction; a bomb had been planted under the bandstand on which the Royal Green Jackets were giving a lunchtime concert to an audience of about 120. Six soldiers had been killed, and 24 people wounded.

Bystanders had rushed to help but police had shepherded them away, in case another device went off.

Used as I was to seeing dead bodies, I found the massacre intensely disturbing. One of the young soldiers had been covered with a cloak, and when it was lifted, we found the upper half of a body, lying on its back, with wide-open eyes gazing at the sky, and the right hand raised, and clutching fingers spread outwards, apparently in supplication. Some of the other bodies had been blown thirty or forty yards, and were shattered, like rag dolls, but one soldier lay as if asleep, without visible damage.

The contrast between this man-made horror and the peaceful surroundings of the park, on that glorious morning, was almost too much to bear.

Within hours the IRA claimed credit for both attacks.
 
Andrew Parker-Bowles has had to deal with one or two pretty grim events in his life, hasn't he? This one, and the knowledge that one of the royals he and his men were assigned to protect was having a long-term affair with his wife. He appears to have kept his dignity throughout interminable Press muck-raking.
 
Asks with ill-concealed prurient interest: "Oh, really?"


Which came first, though, the Prince or the, er, extramural interests?
 
I don't suscribe to the view that many Guilty persons were ever brought to trial.

1969-1982
 
You know the landed gentry and the aristocracy - far more than their fair share of "at it like rabbits". But Charles was first involved with Camilla in the early seventies when she was Camilla Shand. Andrew would have been well aware of the relationship.
 
Sefton was resident at the lovely Home of Rest for Horses in Speen near Princes Risborough. He really was their most popular horse for many, many years. Everyone loved him. I visited him here on several occasions. Sefton died in 1993. Another horse Echo, also suffered in the bomb blast, was also resident at this home, and was their longest serving resident. Echo died at 32 years of age from colic.
 
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