On the morning of 14 July 1958, news arrived in London that the Iraqi monarchy, which had been installed by Britain upon the foundation of Iraq in 1922, had been unexpectedly overthrown in a bloody coup d’état. Members of an Arab nationalist group named the Free Officers – after the Egyptian nationalist officers led by President Nasser – had rounded up and brutally murdered the Royal Family. The insurgents quickly took over Baghdad Radio. Using this platform they announced to the nation that the Iraqi people had been liberated from the corrupt regime which had been installed by powers of ‘imperialism’. They also advised that the body of the Crown Prince, Abd al-Ilah, was hanging outside the Defence Ministry for all to see. His mother Queen Nafisa, his sister Princess Abdiya and King Faisal II had also been killed. The new Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Commander-in-Chief was to be Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim.

Initially, the events caused chaos in Iraq. The frontiers and airports were immediately closed and rioting and looting broke out. British buildings and expatriates were targeted by mobs as symbols of imperial domination. At a Cabinet Defence Committee meeting at 16:30 it was confirmed that there had been no contact from the British Ambassador in Baghdad, Sir Michael Wright, since 9:00 and reports had advised that the British Embassy had been overrun and set on fire. The Embassy had been the secretariat of the British High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, during the British mandate over Iraq (1920–32) and was fronted by a statue of General Frederick Maude, who had led the British Mesopotamia campaign during the Second World War and captured Baghdad. It therefore provided an icon of humiliation to be attacked; the statue was toppled and the mob ransacked the buildings whilst the staff took refuge in the registry. After some hours all members of staff were released, including the Ambassador.