In 1982, Michael Fagan scaled the walls of Buckingham Palace before slipping into the late Queen’s bedroom, where he sat on her bed as she slept, before the monarch made an extraordinary decision to protect her own safety
While Buckingham Palace is now widely considered one of the most secure and protected buildings in the world, the heightened security hasn’t always patrolled the royal residence. The excess of security at the Palace we see today is largely due to an astonishing event that happened 43 years ago.
In July 1982, painter and decorator Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace after scaling the walls of the iconic building and slipping into the bedroom of the late Queen Elizabeth. While many were shocked how such an intrusion on the royal family could occur, the 33-year-old had in fact broken into the Palace more than once.
On his first venture into the Palace, Fagan scaled a drainpipe and entered the premises through an unlocked window. While the intruder was spotted by a frantic member of staff, police dismissed the maid’s claims that she had seen the man roaming such a protected residence.
Fagan then tripped three separate alarms, but police once again ignored the warning system and instead switched them off believing it to be faulty, letting the intruder evade any capture and wander around freely.
During his 30 minutes in the Palace, he admired the artwork, had a foray into the throne room and drank from a bottle of wine that was among presents sent to Prince Charles and Princess Diana to celebrate the birth of Prince William just two weeks earlier.
After polishing off the wine, as well as a selection of cheese and crackers, Fagan left the Palace on his own accord, only to re-enter several weeks later given the obvious lack of security during his first unauthorised visit.
Weeks later at 6am, Fagan entered the Palace again. Over the years, his story has drastically changed on how exactly he gained access to the Palace, but it is widely believed he initially went into an anteroom, where he cut his hand after breaking a glass ashtray.
The intruder, who was barefoot and under the influence of alcohol, then entered the bedroom of the late Queen Elizabeth, as he sat on the end of her bed as she slept. The monarch then woke with a fright, and spoke to Fagan for several minutes to talk him down from any rash decisions.
The late Queen had discreetly pressed an alarm bell to call for help, but the policeman who had been on guard outside her room had finished his shift. In addition, an alarm that Fagan had tripped before he entered the Queen’s bedroom was turned off by police, who again thought it was faulty.
While initial reports claim that the Queen spoke to Fagan calmly while she waited for help, in 2012, Fagan claimed this wasn’t the case. Instead, he said that when he pulled back the curtain of her bed, she immediately leapt up and passed him to call security.
“I was scareder than I’d ever been in my life,” Fagan told the Independent. “Then she speaks and it’s like the finest glass you can imagine breaking: ‘What are you doing here?!'”
The Queen was soon rescued by her dedicated footman, Paul Whybrew, who was just 20 years old at the time and had been out walking the Queen’s corgis.
Whybrew, who served the Queen until her death in 2022, gave Fagan a glass of whisky to calm him down before police arrived. Fagan was then arrested but was not charged with trespassing in the Queen’s bedroom because, at the time, such an action was a civil wrong rather than a criminal offence.
The audacious break-in shocked both the general public and the Metropolitan Police, and led to a massive increase in the number of officers patrolling the grounds and significant improvements were made to perimeter security.
In the decades since the intrusion, Michael Fagan has long claimed he broke into the palace because he thought the monarch could help him after he had been left by his wife to raise his four children alone, and never intended to cause her any alarm.
