HYDE PARK BOMB

The news last night about the untimely, inappropriate and completely ballsedup release of one of the perpetrators, brought it all back. At the time I taught at a secondary school in Oxfordshire and had a sixth form tutor group we, and other sixth formers, we're going to London for a day out - as you used to be able to do in the Dark Ages. The tinier army we'd circulated to parents informed them that we would be having picnic lunch together in Hyde park! before everyone was free to go and do there own thing. We were stuck in traffic on the approach to the park. This was in the days before mobile phones. We had no idea what had occurred in the place that we were due to picnic in. We sat on the bus for ages, nobody knew what was going on and it appeared to be a traffic incident. In the end we all left the coach, abandoned the idea of lunch and went out into the city. It was only when the billboards started appearing and the sense of panic became tangible that we realised we were so close to such devastation. Parents at home were frantic with worry. Of course they were. And they couldn't contact us. Every single pupil and member of staff made their way back to the coach hours ahead of the agreed time and we travelled back to Faringdon without speaking. I think we were all aware of what a lucky escape we had had, but nothing helped us get over the fact that those bandsmen and the horses had lost their lives. RIP