It is now Seven years Since what has come to be known as 7/7. Seven years ago, yesterday, Fifty-two people died after Islamic Jihadists detonated backpacks on board three Underground trains and a LT bus. The attacks by four suicide bombers on the London Transport system on 7th July 2005 were the largest mass murder in Britain in peacetime, killing 52 passengers on The Tube and on the No. 30 bus at Tavistock Square and injuring 700 more, many seriously. Injured or not, and serious or not all who lived through the experience carry vivid and unsettling memories.
About 3,000 people were directly affected ~ 52 died, more than seven hundreds were injured and thousands hurt in a way that cannot be seen from the outside. I was in London that summer & it affected me, and I wanted to blog a remembrance & I thought & thought about how it is best to remember those who died, seven years on. What would be a fitting tribute, honouring the 52 lives lost on 7 July 2005, ensuring that the world will never forget them. And then it came to me ....
The attack on the Tube trains and the buses that summer morning was an attack on all of us, anyone who lives and works and travels in the beautiful, busy, bustling city of London, or any city on this planet. The public were the targets, not politicians or those in power. Ordinary people, who continue to feel they are the targets of terror attacks, every time they use public transport, even today, seven years on.
These were the ordinary Londoners and visitors whose lives were cruelly destroyed on 7th July 2005. These are the people who are missed by sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and partners. They were innocents going about their everyday lives who represent the diversity and dynamism of the great World City that London is. The bombers looked them in the eye and decided their lives were not important. We need to say back that these were important lives, lives that cast a real shadow and count.
So, here is the count .... and the lives that were blown away, seven years ago, today.
~ IN BLESSED MEMORY ~
James Adams, 32, a mortgage broker who was travelling from his home in Peterborough to London through King's Cross from where he called his mother.
Samantha Badham, 35, had taken the Tube with her partner, Lee Harris. The couple usually cycled to work but caught the Tube because they were planning a romantic dinner to celebrate their 14th anniversary.
Lee Harris, 30, an architect who died after receiving treatment at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London. His partner, Samantha Badham, also died in the attacks.
Phil Beer, 22, a hair stylist, was on his way to work at the Sanrizz salon in Knightsbridge with his best friend, Patrick Barnes, who was injured.
Anna Brandt, 41, a Polish cleaner living in Wood Green. She had 2 daughters.
Ciaran Cassidy, 24, of Upper Holloway, north London, an Irishman, on his way to his job as a shop assistant for a printing company in Chancery Lane. He was a keen Arsenal fan.
Elizabeth Daplyn, 26, an administrator at University College Hospital in London, left home in Highgate with her partner, Rob Brennan, before taking a Piccadilly Line train.
Arthur Edlin Frederick, 60, from Grenada, living in Seven Sisters, north London, on his way to work at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Karolina Gluck, 29, from Poland, said goodbye to boyfriend, Richard Deer, 28, at 08:30. The IT consultant was travelling from Finsbury Park to Russell Square.
Gamze Günoral, 24, a Turkish student, left her aunt’s house in north London to catch the tube to go to her language college in Hammersmith.
Ojara Ikeagwu, 55, a married mother-of-three from Luton, was on her way to Hounslow where she worked as a social worker.
Emily Jenkins, 24, from Richmond. Having just returned to the UK from Australia, she was waiting to hear whether she had been successful in her application to become a midwife, on the day she was killed. She had been!
Adrian Johnson, 37, a keen golfer and hockey-player with two young children. He was on his way to work at the Burberry fashion house in Haymarket where he was a product technical manager.
Helen Jones, 28, a Scottish (London-based) accountant who had previously escaped death in 1988 when wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed upon Lockerbie. Her family, from Chapelknowe, Dumfries and Galloway, said: "Helen will live on in the hearts of her family and her many, many friends".
Susan Levy, 53, from Cuffley in Hertfordshire, the mother of Daniel, 25, and James, 23. She had just said goodbye to her younger son.
Shelley Mather, 26, from New Zealand, a tour manager with Contiki Tours.
Michael Matsushita, 37, left his fiancée, Rosie Cowen, 28, at the couple's flat in Islington for his second day at work as a tour guide. He had lived in New York at the time of the 9/11 attack.
James Mayes, 28, worked as an analyst for the Healthcare Commission and had just returned from a holiday in Prague. He was heading from his home in Barnsbury to an ‘away day’ at Lincoln’s Inn and was thought to be travelling by Tube via King's Cross.
Behnaz Mozakka, 47, an Iranian biomedical records officer from Finchley who worked at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.
Mihaela Otto, 46, from Romania, known as Michelle. A dental technician from Mill Hill, North London.
Atique Sharifi, 24, an Afghan national who was living in Hounslow, Middlesex.
Ihab Slimane, a 24-year-old I.T. graduate from Lyon, France, who was working as a waiter at a restaurant near Piccadilly Circus, was said by friends to have caught a Tube from Finsbury Park.
Christian 'Njoya' Small, 28, an advertising salesman from Walthamstow, east London.
Monika Suchocka, 23, originally from Dąbrówka Malborska, in northern Poland, arrived in London two months earlier to start work as a trainee accountant in West Kensington. A flatmate named Kim Phillip said whilst she was still missing: "This is her first time in London and she is really enjoying the excitement of it all".
Mala Trivedi, 51, from Wembley was manager of the X-ray department at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.
Rachelle Chung For Yuen, 27, an accountant from Mill Hill, north London, who was originally from Mauritius.
Michael Stanley Brewster, 52, a father of two who was travelling to work from Derby. He died in the arms of fellow passengers who tried to help.
Jonathan Downey, 34, an HR systems development officer with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea from Milton Keynes, had just said goodbye to his wife at Euston .
David Foulkes, 22, a media sales worker from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was on his way to meet a colleague. It was his first ever journey on the London Tube network.
Colin Morley, 52, of Finchley, marketing consultant. He was originally from Crosby, Liverpool.
Jenny Nicholson, 24, daughter of a Bristol vicar, who had just started work at a music company in London
Laura Webb, 29, from Islington, a PA. Laura was the youngest of three children.
Lee Baisden, 34, an accountant from Romford who was going to work at the London Fire Brigade.
Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, an Italian-born business analyst from Norwich. One of three sisters, she was due to marry her Muslim partner in a ceremony which was to have joint Catholic and Muslim rites later that summer.
Richard Ellery, 21, was travelling from his home in Ipswich to his job in the Jessop’s store in Kensington, via Liverpool Street Station. He texted his parents, Beverley and Trevor, at 8.30am to say he was on his way to work.
Richard Gray, 41, a father of two young children, who worked as a tax manager. He was from Ipswich. At the remembrance service for the victims of the bombings in November 2005, Richard's daughter, Ruby, was chosen to present a posy to the Queen.
Anne Moffat, 48, from Harlow in Essex, who was head of marketing and communications for Girl guiding UK.
Fiona Stevenson, 29, a solicitor who lived at the Barbican, London. Her parents, Ivan and Eimar, of Little Baddow, Essex, described her as "irreplaceable".
Carrie Taylor, a 24-year-old graduate from Billericay, Essex. June Taylor, her mother, said: "We have a little farewell ritual. Carrie gives me a kiss goodbye". The day before the bombings, she had written on the bare plastered wall of her parents kitchen (which was about to be redecorated) 'Carrie Louise Taylor, 6/7/05, we got the 2012 Olympic Games on this day'.
Anthony Fatayi-Williams, 26, a Nigerian-born executive with an oil and gas company based in Old Street, had been living in the UK for eight years.
Jamie Gordon, 30, from Enfield, worked for City Asset Management and was engaged to be married to his girlfriend Yvonne Nash.
Giles Hart, 55, a BT engineer from Hornchurch and father-of-two, was travelling to Angel via Aldgate.
Marie Hartley, 34, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was in London on a course. She was a mother of two young sons.
Miriam Hyman, 32, from Barnet, North London, a picture researcher. She had spoken to her father by phone after being evacuated from King's Cross station and reassured him that she was all right.
Shahara Akther Islam, 20, from Plaistow, East London, a bank cashier who lived with her parents, and was both fully Westernised and Muslim. Shahara was of Bangladeshi origin, she was the eldest of three children, her parents having moved from Sylhet, Bangladesh to the UK in 1965.
Neetu Jain, 37, was evacuated from Euston and caught the bus to take her to work as a computer analyst. Ms Jain was planning to move in with her boyfriend, Gous Ali.
About 3,000 people were directly affected ~ 52 died, more than seven hundreds were injured and thousands hurt in a way that cannot be seen from the outside. I was in London that summer & it affected me, and I wanted to blog a remembrance & I thought & thought about how it is best to remember those who died, seven years on. What would be a fitting tribute, honouring the 52 lives lost on 7 July 2005, ensuring that the world will never forget them. And then it came to me ....
The attack on the Tube trains and the buses that summer morning was an attack on all of us, anyone who lives and works and travels in the beautiful, busy, bustling city of London, or any city on this planet. The public were the targets, not politicians or those in power. Ordinary people, who continue to feel they are the targets of terror attacks, every time they use public transport, even today, seven years on.
These were the ordinary Londoners and visitors whose lives were cruelly destroyed on 7th July 2005. These are the people who are missed by sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and partners. They were innocents going about their everyday lives who represent the diversity and dynamism of the great World City that London is. The bombers looked them in the eye and decided their lives were not important. We need to say back that these were important lives, lives that cast a real shadow and count.
So, here is the count .... and the lives that were blown away, seven years ago, today.
~ IN BLESSED MEMORY ~
James Adams, 32, a mortgage broker who was travelling from his home in Peterborough to London through King's Cross from where he called his mother.
Samantha Badham, 35, had taken the Tube with her partner, Lee Harris. The couple usually cycled to work but caught the Tube because they were planning a romantic dinner to celebrate their 14th anniversary.
Lee Harris, 30, an architect who died after receiving treatment at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London. His partner, Samantha Badham, also died in the attacks.
Phil Beer, 22, a hair stylist, was on his way to work at the Sanrizz salon in Knightsbridge with his best friend, Patrick Barnes, who was injured.
Anna Brandt, 41, a Polish cleaner living in Wood Green. She had 2 daughters.
Ciaran Cassidy, 24, of Upper Holloway, north London, an Irishman, on his way to his job as a shop assistant for a printing company in Chancery Lane. He was a keen Arsenal fan.
Elizabeth Daplyn, 26, an administrator at University College Hospital in London, left home in Highgate with her partner, Rob Brennan, before taking a Piccadilly Line train.
Arthur Edlin Frederick, 60, from Grenada, living in Seven Sisters, north London, on his way to work at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Karolina Gluck, 29, from Poland, said goodbye to boyfriend, Richard Deer, 28, at 08:30. The IT consultant was travelling from Finsbury Park to Russell Square.
Gamze Günoral, 24, a Turkish student, left her aunt’s house in north London to catch the tube to go to her language college in Hammersmith.
Ojara Ikeagwu, 55, a married mother-of-three from Luton, was on her way to Hounslow where she worked as a social worker.
Emily Jenkins, 24, from Richmond. Having just returned to the UK from Australia, she was waiting to hear whether she had been successful in her application to become a midwife, on the day she was killed. She had been!
Adrian Johnson, 37, a keen golfer and hockey-player with two young children. He was on his way to work at the Burberry fashion house in Haymarket where he was a product technical manager.
Helen Jones, 28, a Scottish (London-based) accountant who had previously escaped death in 1988 when wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed upon Lockerbie. Her family, from Chapelknowe, Dumfries and Galloway, said: "Helen will live on in the hearts of her family and her many, many friends".
Susan Levy, 53, from Cuffley in Hertfordshire, the mother of Daniel, 25, and James, 23. She had just said goodbye to her younger son.
Shelley Mather, 26, from New Zealand, a tour manager with Contiki Tours.
Michael Matsushita, 37, left his fiancée, Rosie Cowen, 28, at the couple's flat in Islington for his second day at work as a tour guide. He had lived in New York at the time of the 9/11 attack.
James Mayes, 28, worked as an analyst for the Healthcare Commission and had just returned from a holiday in Prague. He was heading from his home in Barnsbury to an ‘away day’ at Lincoln’s Inn and was thought to be travelling by Tube via King's Cross.
Behnaz Mozakka, 47, an Iranian biomedical records officer from Finchley who worked at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.
Mihaela Otto, 46, from Romania, known as Michelle. A dental technician from Mill Hill, North London.
Atique Sharifi, 24, an Afghan national who was living in Hounslow, Middlesex.
Ihab Slimane, a 24-year-old I.T. graduate from Lyon, France, who was working as a waiter at a restaurant near Piccadilly Circus, was said by friends to have caught a Tube from Finsbury Park.
Christian 'Njoya' Small, 28, an advertising salesman from Walthamstow, east London.
Monika Suchocka, 23, originally from Dąbrówka Malborska, in northern Poland, arrived in London two months earlier to start work as a trainee accountant in West Kensington. A flatmate named Kim Phillip said whilst she was still missing: "This is her first time in London and she is really enjoying the excitement of it all".
Mala Trivedi, 51, from Wembley was manager of the X-ray department at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.
Rachelle Chung For Yuen, 27, an accountant from Mill Hill, north London, who was originally from Mauritius.
Michael Stanley Brewster, 52, a father of two who was travelling to work from Derby. He died in the arms of fellow passengers who tried to help.
Jonathan Downey, 34, an HR systems development officer with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea from Milton Keynes, had just said goodbye to his wife at Euston .
David Foulkes, 22, a media sales worker from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was on his way to meet a colleague. It was his first ever journey on the London Tube network.
Colin Morley, 52, of Finchley, marketing consultant. He was originally from Crosby, Liverpool.
Jenny Nicholson, 24, daughter of a Bristol vicar, who had just started work at a music company in London
Laura Webb, 29, from Islington, a PA. Laura was the youngest of three children.
Lee Baisden, 34, an accountant from Romford who was going to work at the London Fire Brigade.
Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, an Italian-born business analyst from Norwich. One of three sisters, she was due to marry her Muslim partner in a ceremony which was to have joint Catholic and Muslim rites later that summer.
Richard Ellery, 21, was travelling from his home in Ipswich to his job in the Jessop’s store in Kensington, via Liverpool Street Station. He texted his parents, Beverley and Trevor, at 8.30am to say he was on his way to work.
Richard Gray, 41, a father of two young children, who worked as a tax manager. He was from Ipswich. At the remembrance service for the victims of the bombings in November 2005, Richard's daughter, Ruby, was chosen to present a posy to the Queen.
Anne Moffat, 48, from Harlow in Essex, who was head of marketing and communications for Girl guiding UK.
Fiona Stevenson, 29, a solicitor who lived at the Barbican, London. Her parents, Ivan and Eimar, of Little Baddow, Essex, described her as "irreplaceable".
Carrie Taylor, a 24-year-old graduate from Billericay, Essex. June Taylor, her mother, said: "We have a little farewell ritual. Carrie gives me a kiss goodbye". The day before the bombings, she had written on the bare plastered wall of her parents kitchen (which was about to be redecorated) 'Carrie Louise Taylor, 6/7/05, we got the 2012 Olympic Games on this day'.
Anthony Fatayi-Williams, 26, a Nigerian-born executive with an oil and gas company based in Old Street, had been living in the UK for eight years.
Jamie Gordon, 30, from Enfield, worked for City Asset Management and was engaged to be married to his girlfriend Yvonne Nash.
Giles Hart, 55, a BT engineer from Hornchurch and father-of-two, was travelling to Angel via Aldgate.
Marie Hartley, 34, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was in London on a course. She was a mother of two young sons.
Miriam Hyman, 32, from Barnet, North London, a picture researcher. She had spoken to her father by phone after being evacuated from King's Cross station and reassured him that she was all right.
Shahara Akther Islam, 20, from Plaistow, East London, a bank cashier who lived with her parents, and was both fully Westernised and Muslim. Shahara was of Bangladeshi origin, she was the eldest of three children, her parents having moved from Sylhet, Bangladesh to the UK in 1965.
Neetu Jain, 37, was evacuated from Euston and caught the bus to take her to work as a computer analyst. Ms Jain was planning to move in with her boyfriend, Gous Ali.
Sam Ly, 28, from Melbourne, died at the National Hospital of Neurology ~ the only fatality of ten Australians caught in the bombing.
Shyanuja Parathasangary, 30, a post office worker travelling from Kensal Rise to Alder Street.
Philip Russell, a 28-year-old finance worker at JP Morgan who lived at Kennington in South-East London.
William Wise, 54, an IT specialist at Equitas Holdings in St Mary Axe.
Gladys Wundowa, 50, from Ilford in Essex, a cleaner at University College London. She had finished her shift and was heading to a college course in Shoreditch. Her body was taken to her homeland of Ghana for burial.
And, finally, Anat Rosenberg, 39, an Israeli lady I knew. A charity worker who called her boyfriend to tell him she was on the Number 30 bus just seconds before the blast. Anat was special. Caring & fun. I knew her. I miss her. She loved London in the Summertime & I was there too, studying. She was scared of going back to Israel because she was scared of suicide bombings on buses. It is one of the reasons she often cited for leaving Israel. How ironic is that??
Those Who Are Remembered Do Not Die ..... Let us Remember. Always.
Shyanuja Parathasangary, 30, a post office worker travelling from Kensal Rise to Alder Street.
Philip Russell, a 28-year-old finance worker at JP Morgan who lived at Kennington in South-East London.
William Wise, 54, an IT specialist at Equitas Holdings in St Mary Axe.
Gladys Wundowa, 50, from Ilford in Essex, a cleaner at University College London. She had finished her shift and was heading to a college course in Shoreditch. Her body was taken to her homeland of Ghana for burial.
And, finally, Anat Rosenberg, 39, an Israeli lady I knew. A charity worker who called her boyfriend to tell him she was on the Number 30 bus just seconds before the blast. Anat was special. Caring & fun. I knew her. I miss her. She loved London in the Summertime & I was there too, studying. She was scared of going back to Israel because she was scared of suicide bombings on buses. It is one of the reasons she often cited for leaving Israel. How ironic is that??
Those Who Are Remembered Do Not Die ..... Let us Remember. Always.
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