British 9/11 survivor still grieving loss of sixty-one colleagues

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Twenty-five years on from the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed, including 67 Britons, ceremonies were held on both sides of the Atlantic to mark the anniversary. Political leaders, survivors and bereaved families used the occasion to reflect on the scale of the loss, the way the atrocity reshaped global politics and security policy, and, for many who lived through it, on wounds that have never fully healed.

The Independent reported that tributes were paid by senior political figures, with a statement issued in the Prime Minister's name declaring that the UK and US 'stand together in memory of those we lost, and in defence of the values we cherish'. Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, also spoke of the enduring solidarity between the two countries, recalling the messages of support Manchester received from Americans, including children of 9/11 victims, after the 2017 terrorist attacks in that city. He warned that the threat of terrorism has not receded, saying it 'still knocks at the door of democracy'. Sir Tony Blair, prime minister at the time of the attacks, separately described the anniversary as a moment to honour what he called the 'unshakeable and essential bond' between Britain and America, calling 9/11 the deadliest act of terrorism ever carried out against American soil and against British citizens.

Personal testimony from those who were there added a different, more visceral register to the day's commemorations. Thomas von Essen, who was New York's fire commissioner in 2001 and oversaw a department that lost 343 firefighters that morning, recalled the confusion of the attack's opening minutes, when reports of a 'small plane' striking the North Tower gave way to the realisation that a commercial jet had hit the building and that people trapped above the fire were falling or jumping to their deaths. He described the moment a second aircraft struck the South Tower as the point at which it became clear the city was under deliberate attack, and used the anniversary to urge governments not to lose sight of the conditions that allowed the plot to succeed.

A British survivor, Janice Brooks, gave her own account of escaping the World Trade Center. Having moved to New York only weeks earlier to work for Euro Brokers, she was on the 84th floor of the South Tower and had begun evacuating after the first plane struck the North Tower, only to be directed back inside by officials before the second aircraft tore through the floors occupied by her firm. She survived the descent down the burning building, but 61 of her colleagues did not; she has said she still struggles with having attended the funerals of only 23 of them, and now speaks to schoolchildren through the charity Since 9/11 about extremism and tolerance, conscious that no pupil alive today has any living memory of the attacks.

The anniversary also prompted a markedly more critical reflection from British veterans of the Afghanistan campaign that followed 9/11, in which Western forces sought to dismantle the al-Qaeda network responsible for the attacks and remove the Taliban government that had sheltered it. Ben McBean, a former Royal Marine who lost an arm and a leg to an improvised explosive device in Helmand province in 2008 and also lost two comrades during his deployment, said the eventual outcome of the war had left him feeling that the sacrifices made by British forces counted for little. He pointed to the collapse of the Afghan government within days of NATO's withdrawal in August 2021, and the Taliban's subsequent reimposition of restrictions on women's education and public life, as evidence that the gains of the 20-year campaign had been reversed.

Taken together, the coverage of the anniversary revealed differing emphases between outlets. The Independent's account centred on formal political messaging — statements of transatlantic unity from Downing Street, Andy Burnham and Sir Tony Blair — framing the day around continuity, defiance and the bond between Britain and America. Reports carrying testimony from Thomas von Essen and Janice Brooks concentrated instead on first-hand trauma and grief from the day itself, with von Essen using his platform to issue a broader warning to governments about complacency, and Brooks emphasising personal, lasting guilt over colleagues who did not survive. The reporting on Ben McBean and fellow Afghanistan veterans struck a distinctly more sceptical note, questioning not the memory of 9/11 itself but the long-term value of the war waged in its name, and highlighting the toll on British forces — 457 killed and around 2,000 wounded — set against the Taliban's return to power.

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