Michael Fagan (intruder)

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Michael Fagan
Born (1948-08-08) 8 August 1948 (age 73)
Clerkenwell, London
OccupationPainter and decorator
Known forEntering Buckingham Palace twice; Entering the Queen's bedroom in Buckingham Palace (1982)
Notable work
"God Save the Queen" (cover version with the Bollock Brothers, 1983)
Political partyWorkers Revolutionary Party (ca. 1970s–1980s)
Criminal charge(s)
  • Attacking a policeman (1984)
  • Conspiring to supply heroin (1997)
Criminal penalty
  • Three months in prison (1984)
  • Four years in prison (1997)
Criminal status
  • Suspended sentence (1984)
  • Imprisoned (1997)
Spouse(s)
Christine Fagan
​
(m. 1972)​
ChildrenArran Fagan (b. 1977) and three other children
Parents
  • Michael Fagan (father)
  • Ivy Fagan (mother)
RelativesMargaret and Elizabeth Fagan (sisters)

Michael Fagan (born 8 August 1948) is a British man known for breaking into the Queen's bedroom in Buckingham Palace in 1982.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Michael Fagan was born in Clerkenwell, London, on 8 August 1948,[1] the son of Ivy and Michael Fagan.[2] His father was a steel erector and a "champion safe-breaker." He had two younger sisters, Marjorie and Elizabeth.[2] In 1955, he attended Compton Street School in Clerkenwell (now St. Peter & St. Paul RC Primary School). In 1966, he left home at 18 to escape from his father, who, Fagan says, was violent. He started working as a painter and decorator. In 1972, he married Christine, with whom he had four children (she left him the year of the break-ins, but later came back).[2] At some point in the 1970s–1980s, Fagan was a member of a North London branch of the Workers Revolutionary Party.[3]

Break-ins[]

First entry[]

Buckingham Palace, pictured in 1980

Fagan's first intrusion into the palace took place in early June 1982.[2] Fagan says he shimmied up a drainpipe and startled a housemaid, who called security. He had disappeared before guards arrived, who then disbelieved the housemaid's report. Fagan claims he then entered the palace through an unlocked window on the roof and wandered around for the next half-hour while eating cheddar cheese and crackers. Two alarms were tripped, but the police turned them off believing them to be faulty.[2] He viewed royal portraits and sat for some time on a throne. He also spoke of entering the postroom. He drank a half bottle of white wine before getting tired and sneaking back out.[2]

Second entry[]

At around 7:00 am on 9 July 1982, Fagan scaled Buckingham Palace's 14-foot-high (4.3 m) perimeter wall, which was topped with revolving spikes and barbed wire,[4] and climbed up a drainpipe before wandering into the Queen's bedroom at about 7:15 am.[1]

An alarm sensor had detected his movements inside the palace, but police thought the alarm was faulty and silenced it.[2] Fagan wandered the palace corridors for several minutes before reaching the royal apartments. In an anteroom Fagan broke a glass ashtray, cutting his hand. He was still carrying a fragment of the glass when he entered the Queen's bedroom.[1]

The Queen woke when he disturbed a curtain, and initial reports said Fagan sat on the edge of her bed. However, in a 2012 interview, he said she left the room immediately to seek security.[2] She had phoned the palace switchboard twice for police, but none had arrived. The duty footman, Paul Whybrew, who had been walking the Queen's dogs, then appeared, followed by two policemen on palace duty who removed Fagan. The incident had happened as the armed police officer outside the royal bedroom came off duty before his replacement arrived.[4]

A subsequent police report was critical of the competence of officers on duty, as well as a system of confused and divided command.[1]

Arrest[]

Since Fagan's actions were, at the time, a civil wrong rather than a criminal offence, he was not charged with trespassing in the Queen's bedroom.[5] He was charged with theft (of the wine), but the charges were dropped when he was committed for psychiatric evaluation. In late July, Fagan's mother said, "He thinks so much of the Queen. I can imagine him just wanting to simply talk and say hello and discuss his problems."[6] He spent the next three months in a psychiatric hospital[7] before being released on 21 January 1983.[8]

It was not until 2007, when Buckingham Palace became a "designated site" for the purposes of section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, that such an offence has become criminal.[9]

Later life[]

Two years after entering Buckingham Palace, Fagan attacked a policeman at a café in Fishguard, Wales, and was given a three-month suspended sentence.[10] In 1983, Fagan recorded a cover version of the Sex Pistols song "God Save the Queen" with punk band the Bollock Brothers.[11] In 1997, he was imprisoned for four years after he, his wife and their 20-year-old son Arran were charged with conspiring to supply heroin.[2]

Fagan made an appearance in Channel 4's The Antics Roadshow,[12] an hour-long 2011 TV documentary directed by the artist Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz charting the history of people behaving oddly in public.

In fiction[]

The intrusion was adapted in 2012 for an episode of Sky Arts' Playhouse Presents series entitled "Walking the Dogs", a one-off British comedy drama featuring Emma Thompson as the Queen and Eddie Marsan as the intruder.[13] In 2020, Tom Brooke played Fagan in season 4 of The Crown.[14][15]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d "Text of Scotland Yard's Report On July 9 Intrusion into Buckingham Palace (Published 1982)". The New York Times. 22 July 1982.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Dugan, Emily (19 February 2012). "Michael Fagan: 'Her nightie was one of those Liberty prints, down to her knees'". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  3. ^ Mitchell, Alex (15 January 2016). "Alex Mitchell's Weekly Notebook – David Bowie's brush with fascism and the occult". Come the Revolution. Retrieved 30 November 2020. At the time I favoured admitting that Fagan had been recruited and belonged to one of our North London branches. We should make clear his palace break-in was his own initiative and had nothing to do with the WRP, and he would now face internal disciplinary proceedings.
  4. ^ a b Linton, Martin; Wainwright, Martin (13 July 1982). "Whitelaw launches Palace inquiry". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Baker, Dennis J (2012). Glanville Williams: Textbook of Criminal Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell. p. 1256.
  6. ^ Davidson, Spencer (26 July 1982). "Britain: God Save the Queen, Fast". Time. p. 33. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  7. ^ Retter, Emily (19 November 2020). "Queen's bedroom intruder describes moment he broke in – and the 'shoddy' decor". The Mirror.
  8. ^ "Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan: what happened and why did he break in?". BBC History Magazine. 10 November 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  9. ^ "Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Designated Sites under Section 128) Order 2007". Government of the United Kingdom. 4 July 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
  10. ^ "From the Palace to a Prison Cell". The Belfast Telegraph.
  11. ^ "God Save the Queen" at Discogs
  12. ^ "The Antics Roadshow". The Antics Roadshow. Episode 1. August 2011. Channel 4. Archived from the original on 12 September 2016.
  13. ^ "Walking The Dogs – Sky Arts Comedy Drama". British Comedy Guide.
  14. ^ "The Crown, magic mushrooms and the truth behind Michael Fagan's palace break-in". The Guardian. 17 November 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  15. ^ "The Crown season 4: Palace intruder Michael Fagan 'wasn't consulted' over incident depiction". Metro. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
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