19th Anniversary of the London Transport Islamic terror bombings.

By Esmerelda Weatherwax

To Tavistock Square to meet friends from March for England to pay respects at the memorial to those murdered on the No 30 bus (the other three explosions were on underground trains nearest to Aldgate, Edgware Road and Kings Cross stations). I try to meet them every year if I am free.

The bus bomb killed 13 people. The death toll may have been worse but the explosion occured right outside the offices of the British Medical Association and the doctors working there immediatly used what they had to hand to set up a field hospital in the courtyard and surely saved lives. Rescue operations in the tunnels were obviously a more difficult affair.

There is a memorial plaque on the railings similar to the three at each underground station but a more substantial stone memorial has also been erected the opposite side of the road in the Square gardens in recent years.

Two very dignified flower arrangements from the BMA were in place at both memorials and my friends laid their individual flowers on the flat stone. Tomorrow, the actual anniversary (7th July 2005) is therefore left undisturbed for friends and family of those killed to attend in peace and privacy.

Note that the inscription doesn’t identify who did the bombing or why 13 people were killed; history is expected to remain ignorant of the jihadi Islamic terrorism that wanted revenge on people they blamed as ‘Christian crusaders’.

London will not forget them and all those who suffered that day.