‘Drunk’ Prince Harry ‘accidentally triggered panic alarm at St James’s Palace’, ex soldier reveals
‘Drunk’ Prince Harry ‘accidentally triggered panic alarm at St James’s Palace after falling onto the button in sentry box’, ex soldier reveals
Prince Harry once accidentally triggered a panic alarm at St James’s Palace when he returned worse the wear after a night out and fell over in a guard’s sentry box, it has been claimed.
A former soldier told how the prince fell into the sentry box and set off the alarm by accident, triggering an armed response by palace guards and armed police.
The Duke of Sussex, who was 27 at the time of the alleged incident in 2012, was described as ‘blind drunk’ by the soldier, who served in the army for more than a decade before being injured by shrapnel from an IED in Afghanistan.
Prince Harry was also in the army at the time of the incident, but is believed to have been off-duty and partying with civilian friends, the Sun reports.
![](https://london24news.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LOGO2.png)
Prince Harry, who was 27 at the time of the alleged incident in 2012, was described as ‘blind drunk’ by the soldier
![](https://london24news.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LOGO2.png)
Sentry boxes, seen at most royal residences including Buckingham Palace, are occupied by guards during the day but kept empty at night (Pictured: Guard at Buckingham Palace, stock image)
The veteran told the paper how the alarm was set off at around midnight, triggering three members of the palace’s QRF (Quick Response Force) and two armed Metropolitan Police officers to dash to the scene.
There they found a ‘blind drunk’ Prince Harry, who had collapsed inside the box.
The ex-soldier said: ‘He was slurring his words, not making any sense.
‘When we tried to pick him up he started yelling, “get off me, I don’t need any help”.
‘He was pushing us off and being very abusive.’
The group helped the prince back to his apartment before leaving him to sleep it off.
A commander then called the guard room the following morning and insisted that the incident be kept secret, the former soldier claims.
Sentry boxes, seen at most royal residences including Buckingham Palace, are occupied by guards during the day but kept empty at night.
Prince Harry’s former party lifestyle has been well-documented and includes an infamous trip to Vegas in which he was snapped wearing nothing but a necklace following a game of strip billiards.
But in Spare, he hinted this lifestyle was a reaction to his troubled upbringing, describing how he took cocaine as a teen to try and feel something. He wrote: ‘That was my main goal. To feel.’
In the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s recent Netflix docuseries, Prince Harry described how he did not cry for years following the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
![](https://london24news.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LOGO2.png)
Prince Harry pictured on a night out at the Cuckoo Club in London with brother Prince William in 2006
![](https://london24news.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LOGO2.png)
Prince Harry on patrol in the deserted town of Garmsir, southern Afghanistan, in 2008
![](https://london24news.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LOGO2.png)
Harry reportedly detailed the shock revelation in his tell-all memoir Spare that has been leaked days before it was due to be published
The source also hit out at Harry’s revelations in controversial memoir Spare that he killed 25 Taliban members in combat.
He said kill counts were something ‘you never talk about’ and accused the prince of stoking the flames of political uncertainty in Afghanistan.
The Duke of Sussex, who was known as ‘Captain Wales’ in the military, wrote that he did not think of those killed ‘as people’ but instead ‘chess pieces’ he had taken off the board.
The prince was first deployed to Helmand province as a forward air controller in 2007, but his first tour of duty was cut short when an Australian magazine broke a media embargo by mistake.
However, he returned in 2012 with the Ministry of Defence publicising his second deployment on the understanding that the media would allow him to get on with the job at hand.
After he learnt to fly Apache helicopters, Harry was deployed to Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan in 2012 where he stayed for 20 weeks.
Representatives for Prince Harry have been contacted for comment.