Pc Trevor Lock, who became a hero of the Iranian embassy siege, dies aged 85
He was awarded the George Medal in recognition of his outstanding bravery for his actions during the 1980 siege.
Trevor Lock, the policeman who became a hero of the Iranian Embassy siege, has died at the age of 85.
Mr Lock was guarding the Iranian embassy in South Kensington when he and 25 others were taken hostage after terrorists burst into the building on April 30, 1980.
It led to a six-day stand-off that was ended when the Special Air Service (SAS) stormed the building, and saw Mr Lock receive the George Medal in recognition of his outstanding bravery.
He put himself on self-appointed duty with limited sleep, food and drink throughout the siege, where he remained calm and built up a rapport with the hostage takers – but then shoulder-charged the terrorist leader as the rescue operation was under way.
Mr Lock had managed to hide a handgun that was strapped to his body until the final day of the siege.
Photographs taken during the siege showed him speaking to police negotiators from a window at the embassy as a man of Middle Eastern appearance buries his head in his hands.
On Tuesday, a Police Federation spokesman said: “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.
“Pc Lock is remembered for calming his fellow hostages during the siege, acting as an intermediary between the terrorists and the security forces that ringed the building and – as the embassy was stormed – tackling the leading gunman.
“Pc Lock was awarded the George Medal for his ‘outstanding courage, sustained bravery, calmness and devotion to duty’.
“We could not have said it any better.”
The hostage takers were Iranian-Arabs campaigning for the sovereignty of Khuzestan, a province in the south west of the country.
They demanded the release of prisoners held in Iran, as well as their own safe passage out of the UK.
Mr Lock shied away from publicity and the label of being called a hero.
In an interview with The Independent in 2010, he said “I’d like to have helped one of the hostages (press attache Abbas Lavasani) who had said if they were going to kill a hostage, he wanted it to be him.”
The SAS was given the go-ahead to enter after Mr Lavasani was murdered.
He told the newspaper: “The other hostages have a reunion; it used to be every year. I don’t enjoy that stuff. I don’t enjoy glorifying it, basically.”
Mr Lock was speaking in his retirement from his home in Essex which was filled with photographs of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren – and he donated his George Medal to the police museum, after storing it in his wife’s knitting basket for years.
He added: “The grandchildren used to come home and say that they’d learnt about me in history.
“It is history now.”
