1941: On this day, 814 20-year-old city girls responded to their call-up papers - although some forgot their registration card! Many of the girls had come with their mothers, while others had their boyfriends for company. Some are described as arriving 'with an army escort on either side'. Quite a few perambulators are also recorded as being parked outside the building. (Gray, David, Peterborough at War 1939-1945, David Gray, 2011)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.
The 7 July 2005 London bombings, also known as 7/7, were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks in London, that targeted commuters travelling on the public transport system during the morning rush hour.
Four Islamic terrorists separately detonated three homemade bombs - triacetone triperoxide IEDs packed into backpacks - in quick succession aboard London Underground trains across the city and, later, a fourth on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. Two trains on the Circle line were targeted, one near Aldgate and one at Edgeware Road and one train on the Piccadilly line near Russell Square.
Apart from the bombers, 52 people were killed, and more than 700 were injured in the attacks. One of those killed on the Piccadilly line was James Adams aged 32 years, from Peterborough, who had recently started a new job as an endowment mortgage adviser for Deloittes, in the Strand. Mr Adams had been a chorister at Peterborough King’s School, where he roomed with Labour’s Tottenham MP David Lammy. He was a committed Christian who was an active member of the Bretton Baptist Church where he served as a deacon for three years and also a keen sports fan, in particular enjoying motor racing and Manchester United Football Club.
The 7 July bombings were Britain’s first Islamic suicide attack and the deadliest terrorist incident since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland.
References:
The Guardian Obituary, Thu 28 Jul 2005
The Peterborough Telegraph, Tue 30 Nov 2010
Image:
The Evening Standard 7 July 2005 - The British Library
On 11 September 2001 nineteen male terrorists hijacked four fuel-loaded US commercial airplanes bound for west coast destinations and purposely crashed them at various sites. A total of 2,977 people were killed in New York City, Washington, DC and outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attack was orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
At the World Trade Center (Twin Towers), site in Lower Manhattan, 2,753 people - ranging in age from 2 to 85 years - were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed into the north and south towers which subsequently collapsed. One of the victims was from Peterborough;
Christine McNulty aged 42 of Orton Longueville, a marketing executive working for London-based management consultancy firm Accenture was in New York on business. At the time the planes struck she was having breakfast at the Windows of the World restaurant in the north tower. She sadly perished in the attack, leaving behind a partner and young daughter. Her name is inscribed on the memorial at the World Trade Center site.
The other crash sites were the Pentagon in Washington, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defence, where 184 people were killed when the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where 40 passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when the plane crashed into a field. It is believed that the hijackers crashed the plane there rather than reaching their (unknown) target because passengers and crew tried to retake control.
Image:
New York, USA - August 16, 2015: Names of the victims of attacks inscribed on the parapets surrounding the waterfalls of National September 11 Memorial. (iStock)
References
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/10/september11.uk
On 11 September 2001 nineteen male terrorists hijacked four fuel-loaded…