Prince and PM pay tribute to lost Britons

Prime Minister David Cameron and the Prince of Wales joined relatives of British 9/11 victims yesterday at a ceremony to mark the tenth anniversary of the attacks.

About 30 families who lost loved ones in the terrorist atrocities attended the sombre remembrance service at the 11 September memorial garden next to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London.

Other guests at the moving ceremony included the Duchess of Cornwall, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Labour leader Ed Miliband, US ambassador to the UK Louis Susman, Dame Judi Dench and London mayor Boris Johnson.

Bereaved relatives of those who died read out the names of the 67 British victims of the attacks and laid a white rose for each of them. The Prince, Mr Cameron and Mr Susman also laid wreaths, and Dame Judi read Christina Rossetti’s poem Remember me, when I am gone away.

Hannah Ali, whose sister Sarah, 35, was killed in the World Trade Centre, read American author Henry Van Dyke’s poem For Katrina’s Sun-Dial, beginning “Time is too slow for those who wait”, which is inscribed on the memorial stone in the garden.

Prince Charles said the families’ loved ones were “cruelly, brutally and pointlessly torn from them” when “so much premeditated death and destruction” came out of the skies on 11 September, 2001.

He added that the “dreadful act of violence” of 9/11 was intended to divide the world, but had actually drawn people together, “one person to another, one community to another”.

Mr Susman, told the families gathered for the ceremony: “The ultimate aim of the 9/11 attacks to destroy our way of life failed – it failed utterly.”

Nearby, a group of about 100 men shouted “USA terrorists” and brandished placards with anti-American slogans.

A number of radical Islamic groups, including Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), gathered outside the American embassy where they set fire to the American flag during the minute’s silence to commemorate the victims of 9/11.

One of the people attending the Grosvenor Square memorial service said the protesters should have been stopped from standing across the road from the embassy. The man, whose cousin died in the 9/11 attacks, said: “They shouldn’t be allowed to do it. It’s very disrespectful. It’s too loud.”

Abdul Sallam, 41, who was waving a sign that read “Keep The Silence”, travelled down to London from his home in Glasgow to show the strength of his feelings.

He said: “I’m a Muslim. What they’re doing is bringing shame on all Muslims. This is not part of the teachings of Islam. Islam is all about peace, but what they want to do is hate other people.”

After the ceremony, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, who was wearing a navy blue Anna Valentine dress and jacket, met the families in a marquee behind the memorial.

Anne-Marie Mosley, whose brother Benjamin Walker, 41, an employee of insurance brokers Marsh McClennan, was killed on the 91st floor of the World Trade Centre’s north tower, said the bereaved relatives were grateful for the Prince’s support over the years.

She said the Prince’s loss of Lord Louis Mountbatten in an IRA attack helped him empathise with survivors: “He has lost family in a terror attack. It is very poignant to have someone to emphasise with the group.”

Her sister Ruth Tufnell added: “It is ten years on, all our lives have changed a great deal – and the world has changed a great deal. It is nice to remember what has been but also to look forward to what is going to happen in the future.”

The Prince also met the family of British victim Hashmukh Parmar, 48, an IT manager for broker Cantor Fitzgerald.

Mr Parmar’s brother, Manoj, said: “He was talking about the circumstances of our brother’s death. We told him a bit about how his was one of the last bodies to be recovered intact. He [the Prince] also mentioned his general aversion to tall buildings and how he much prefers low-rise buildings.”

His brother Dhiraj, known as “Dave”, added: “The ceremony brought [the past] ten years back. It was a very sad day for us – after ten years I found even more sadness.”

Earlier, some families attended a special service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London to remember the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania.

The ceremony featured a newly commissioned anthem based on a message the Queen sent to a memorial service held in New York for British victims nine days after the attacks.

The song, arranged to music by American composer Nico Muhly, is based around the monarch’s words, “Grief is the price we pay for love”, and also includes quotations from psalms. The Dean of St Paul’s, the Rt Rev Graeme Paul Knowles, said a prayer for the victims of the 9/11 attacks and their loved ones at the service.

“We gather in this cathedral today to remember before God all who died in the atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania ten years ago and to pray with those whose lives were changed forever that day,” he said.

“We also remember those innocent people who, in our lifetime, have had their lives taken from them through acts of terrorism in the cities of our world.”

The dean added: “We come as people from many backgrounds to pray for the future security of our world, for a spirit of tolerance and mutual respect, for peace and freedom, for justice and the rule of law, that together we might go forward with confidence and hope.”