On the day the world mourned and remembered the death of the musical icon, Michael Jackson, across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom, Prince Charles today led another tear jerking ceremony that paid tribute to the 52 victims of the July 7th 2005 London bombings.

With the unveiling of a new memorial in Hyde Park, the Prince, along with his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall Camilla Parker Bowles and the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, stood in somber silence as they joined thousands of people who also remembered that day—when their everyday lives were disrupted with the futile bombings of underground trains and buses in England’s capital city.

The eldest son of Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, spoke to the crowd saying, ”I believe the date of the London bombings is etched vividly on all our minds, as a brutal intrusion into the lives of thousands of people.
‘Tragically, as we know, some were not so fortunate as to walk away from what happened on that awful day, and it is them that we seek to honour with the memorial which has been erected here in Hyde Park in their memory.” Continuing the Prince said, ”The families of the victims, the survivors and the stout hearted emergency services remain very much in our thoughts and prayers. You are a moving example of holding together bravery in the face of such inhuman and deplorable outrage and you offer us hope for the future,”
Including his wife’s sentiments on the day Charles continued, ”our deeply held grief and anguish at the appalling aberrations in the human consciousness which produced such cruel and mindless carnage.”
The monument, thought to have cost £1m is made of 52 unique stainless steel columns, grouped in four clusters to reflect the locations where four suicide bombers detonated their rucksack bombs, shattering the lives of so many: Tavistock Square, Edgware Road, King’s Cross and Aldgate.
Television news reader, Sir Trevor MacDonald, hosted the ceremony during which he slowly and solemnly read the name of every person killed in the London bombings. At the end of the roll call, he told the families and survivors: ‘We will remember them all.’
A minute’s silence was then held as the rain, which had stopped for much of the ceremony, began to fall heavily. The crowd stood with their heads bowed as traffic from nearby Park Lane rumbled by.

The Prince and the Duchess were then invited forward to lay wreaths with Charles placing a floral tribute (made from his Prince of Wales feathers) on behalf of the nation in front of a plaque bearing the names of all 52 victims, while Camilla left her own tribute of flowers on behalf of the families.
London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, attended the memorial service and told both the audience and the media, ”This memorial echoes the steely determination shown by Londoners in the days following the bombings. We have done much to make London safer, but today reminds us that London’s strength ultimately lies with its people.”
A. B. Barden