The Queen today unveiled Britain’s first national memorial dedicated to the 1,600 police officers who have been killed in the line of duty.

The families of many of the officers named in the monument, whose centrepiece is a black granite tablet with a book of remembrance set inside a glass case, were present for the ceremony.

"It is surely appropriate that this should be positioned in The Mall - an area of London so often associated with our national way of life," said the Queen.

"When people pass by the memorial, I hope they will pause and reflect on the proud traditions that it represents. The courage and personal sacrifice recorded here will, I am certain, serve as an inspiration to us all."

Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy interrupted their election campaigning to attend this morning's ceremony.

Mr Blair praised the work that police officers do "day in and day out" to protect us. He said: "In the course of any day, they know they might face danger and even death.

"The purpose of this memorial is very simple - it is to say thank you to those police officers who have been killed in the service of their communities and in the service of their country."

The monument is the brainchild of Michael Winner, the film director. He was inspired to set up the Police Memorial Trust following the shooting of Pc Yvonne Fletcher while on duty outside the Libyan embassy in 1984. Her killer has never been caught.

Mr Winner persuaded the architect Norman Foster, now Lord Foster, to design the memorial free of charge. The book contains the names of 1,600 officers who were murdered on duty, killed while carrying out an arrest or while performing acts of gallantry.

Today Mr Winner said that the national memorial stood as a tribute to those who fought a war without end.

"They are the names of officers who were shot, run down, stabbed, blown up, beaten to death or knifed," he said.

"That is what I call the sharp end of the rule of law. It is a grand concept, but at the end of the day it boils down to the young men and women on the beat without whom there would be anarchy.

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