W H Mays Mortuary

This year we mark the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on London.Now the families of more than 30 British holidaymakers in Sousse are beginning that same long journey of mourning and loss which the families of those London victims have been travelling ever since that dreadful morning.I know that I speak for all of you in thanking the Tavistock Square Memorial Trust for the continuing and unerring support.In the aftermath of the disaster I was privileged to be asked by the then Prime Minister to co-ordinate the government’s support and response to those who were bereaved on 7th July and the hundreds of survivors whose lives were changed forever on that day. I had undertaken a similar responsibility on behalf of the bereaved UK families after the 9/11 attack on New York.To be Minister for Humanitarian Assistance was a quite different ministerial role through which I have built lasting friendships and relationships over a decade.This evening we have come together to pay tribute to those who died, to their families and the injured and survivors of 7/7.As we all know only too well, on the morning of Thursday 7 July 2005 three bombs were activated at around 8:50 a.m. on underground trains just outside Liverpool Street and Edgware Road stations, and on another travelling between King's Cross and Russell Square. An hour later, there was a fourth explosion on a double-decker bus here in Tavistock Square, where we meet this evening. All together fifty two people lost their lives and nearly 800 were injured, many of them horribly.Ten years since those attacks, we come here today to remember those we have lost, in solidarity with the bereaved, and to show our continuing support for those whose lives were shockingly changed forever by the bombs.Each of you will have your memories of that terrible day. Many of your memories will be far more vivid and more painful than mine. But I will certainly never forget it – neither the day itself nor the days after...