A former soldier-turned-filmmaker is raising thousands to make a documentary about one of the most notorious terrorist attacks in the capital.
Mauricio Gris has launched a crowdfunder to pay for his film about the 1982 IRA Hyde Park bomb which killed four Household Cavalry soldiers and seven horses and injured dozens of people.
They were attacked with a remote control bomb packed with high explosives and nails as they were on their way to the Changing of the Guard and photographs of the stricken horses lying in pools of blood by the park became one of the abiding images of the Troubles.
Gris, who served in the regiment for more than seven years, said: “I felt, maybe because of the Falklands War and all the other stuff that was going on at the time, that it was lost a little or at least the men’s stories were lost.
“These guys have never had their stories told… all the focus was on the horses, so they didn’t really get their say ,which is part of the reason I wanted to get their side and the impact on them.”
He has interviewed survivors as well as Andrew Parker Bowles who was the commanding officer at the time.
Gris, 39, said: “These guys went back to work straight away so it’s a very different approach to trauma now so I wanted to explore what impact that had 40 years on.”
He is hoping to raise between £8,000 and £12,000.