Pride and pain of Queen Elizabeth funeral for old soldier who tackled a gunman

 As seven horses drawing the casket of Queen Elizabeth II turned a particular corner during the procession of her coffin on Wednesday, Alec Galloway was brought to tears.

Emotional memories of a moment of heroism came flooding back while Mr Galloway watched from his home near the royal residence in Windsor.

On the television screen was the exact spot where a gunman in the crowd had fired six shots at the monarch during Trooping the Colour for her official birthday celebrations on June 13, 1981.

Then a Lance Corporal with the Scots Guards, the 37-year-old feared the queen would be killed and launched himself at the attacker.

“I’ll never forget that day as long as I live,” he told The National.

“It’s something that will always stay with me. I thought it was a real live round and he was going to assassinate the queen.

“I ran to the barrier and shoved it against him, got the gun out of his hand and then pulled him over the barrier by his hair, and kicked him in the head to prevent him from moving."

For a split second, the soldier considered using his bayonet but decided that the dazed perpetrator, 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant, was not going anywhere.

When police officers ran in, Sarjeant reportedly begged them to get Mr Galloway off him.

"He is very lucky," he says. "It would have been a different story if I had got him with my bayonet. He was assassinating the queen as far as I was concerned. An old man in the crowd shouted at me: 'A bit slow with the bayonet there'.”

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