Australia's first attempted assassination

1868 Prince Alfred (Duke Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), Duke of Edinburgh (1844 - 1900), the first member of Britain’s royal family to visit Australia, was shot by Irish-Australian Henry James O'Farrell, at Clontarf, a suburb of Sydney.

In one of Australia's greatest injustices, despite O’Farrell’s apparent mental instability, anti-Irish sentiment labelled the crime as political assassination and O’Farrell was hanged a few weeks later on April 21, merely for slightly injuring Queen Victoria’s son. To Prince Alfred's credit, he attempted to intercede to save his would-be killer.

Tagged: australia, royalty, history, australian+history