daily express — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor asked to visit the scene of the 1980 Iranian embassy siege while Scotland Yard negotiated to free 26 hostages, Ben Macintyre’s book ‘The Siege’ states. The then-20-year-old trainee Royal Navy helicopter pilot watched the six-day crisis unfold on television and sent a persistent request to be present where negotiators and officers were working. Police commanders refused the initial approach on the grounds of safety; an offer to attend incognito was later described as absurd.
What the book details
Ben Macintyre’s book ‘The Siege’ places the contact on Day Five of the six-day siege, when Inspector Peter Prentice of the Royal Protection Unit reached out to the ‘Zulu control’ team handling talks with the six gunmen who had entered the Iranian embassy on Princes Gate, London. The siege had reached a critical negotiation phase after one hostage was killed and his body was left on the embassy steps, and the operation was under intense pressure.
Inspector Peter Prentice conveyed a simple message: the young royal “would like to come to lunch, ” Macintyre records. John Dellow, the Scotland Yard commander overseeing the operation, refused the request “on the grounds of safety” and passed the matter to Commissioner David McNee, while the former Prince did not want to see McNee and remained determined to be “where the action was. ” An hour after the first request was denied, a further message suggested he could attend “incognito, ” a proposal dismissed as “absurd, an unnecessary distraction and pointless. “
Immediate reactions from officials and the author
Inspector Peter Prentice of the Royal Protection Unit conveyed the initial invitation detail as recounted in the book. John Dellow, the Scotland Yard commander in charge of the police operation, rejected the presence request on the grounds of safety. Ben Macintyre’s narrative captures the persistence of the approach and the blunt rebuff from Dellow, who sent a message that “HRH would be informed as soon as the operation was complete so that he could attend if he so wished….one hour after its conclusion. ” These named voices frame the clash between a high-profile individual’s determination to be near events and an operational command prioritizing safety and control.
Daily Express coverage and the known timeline
The record in the book shows the siege concluded when the SAS stormed the embassy; the former Prince arrived at the scene at 19: 55 ET on Day Six after the 11-minute operation that left five gunmen dead. The Iranian dissident group had killed two of the hostages before the assault. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, accompanied by her husband Denis, met the SAS rescuers shortly after the operation ended.
Quick context
The incident unfolded over six days in 1980 as a high-stakes hostage crisis in London; negotiations and operational planning were handled by Scotland Yard units and an SAS assault team. The presence request and the rebuff are documented in Ben Macintyre’s historical account of the siege.
What happens next
Expect renewed public attention to the episode as extracts from the book circulate and historians, security professionals and former officers weigh in on operational boundaries during crises. The daily express name will resurface in coverage that contrasts palace interest with police command decisions, and further commentary from named officials or participants may clarify how that refusal shaped post-siege protocol and public reaction.
