FIFTY-TWO dead and 700 injured is a high price for honours. Yet selfless valour demands its just recognition.

To a man and woman, the 20 representatives of the heroic effort to rescue the victims of the London bombings last July who were invested and thanked by the Queen at Buckingham Palace yesterday insisted that they were collecting their medals on behalf of others, and that they had only been doing their job.

Some job. Inspector Glen McMunn, of the British Transport Police, led the first team of rescuers half a mile down the Piccadilly Line tunnel from Russell Square to a train ripped apart by a suicide bomber. In the dark and dust he came upon a horrendous scene of broken glass, broken bodies and the dead. Among those he helped to rescue was Gill Hicks, 35, who lost her legs.

As he displayed his MBE insignia at the Palace yesterday, Inspector McMunn, 44, recalled the eerie, silent scene of carnage. “The most poignant thing for me was to meet Gill in person afterwards,” he said. “She thanked me for getting her out of that tunnel; to have saved a life means as much to me as anything here today.”

Months after an explosion that so nearly killed her, Ms Hicks walked up the aisle to her wedding on prosthetic legs.

William Kilminster, also appointed MBE, led the first team of paramedics to reach the Russell Square train. It was, he said yesterday, his toughest day in 16 years with the London Ambulance Service.

“It was dark, dusty and very, very quiet down there,” he said. “There was no panic, no screaming, no crying. The only light was from the beam of my torch, and it fell on a scene from a horror movie. We assessed those casualties still alive, and prioritised them to get them out in the right order. When we heard reports of another explosion, we had to decide whether to get out; we all chose to stay.”

Mr Kilminster, 37, said: “I felt pride for the Ambulance Service when I stepped up to the Queen; this medal is for all of them involved that day.”

John Boyle, an Underground train driver, was off duty as he walked past Aldgate station to hear a bomb rip apart a Circle Line train. It was instinct, he said yesterday, that propelled him into the station, through clouds of suffocating smoke, to help to rescue 500 passengers.

“It was clear there was nothing I could do for these people (the dead),” he said. “I decided my priority was to get the walking wounded away from the train and into the station.”

Holding up his MBE insignia, Mr Boyle, 48, added: “I have had to take more time off since because of how I feel, but I would do the same thing tomorrow if I had to.”

Backroom staff as well as frontline rescuers were honoured yesterday. Major Muriel McClenahan, of the Salvation Army, seconded to the London Resilience team, helped to draw up a “mass fatality” plan put into action on the day.

“The Queen told me I had one of the more depressing roles to play. I was involved in the temporary mortuary and in the family viewing of the dead, making sure that their faith needs were met. The voluntary sector played an important part in the operation.”

Recalling the fateful day, Major McClenahan said: “I felt what everyone else in London must have felt that day; it was completely surreal. The memory will stay with me for ever.”

THE AWARDS

CBE
Julie Dent co-ordinator of NHS response Peter Hendy head of surface transport, Transport for London

Honorary CBE
Timothy O’Toole, US-born managing director, London Underground

OBE
Major Muriel McClenahan, Salvation Army, mass fatality plan co-odinator
Dr Alastair Wilson Royal London Hospital, where more than 200 victims were treated

MBE
Dallas Ariotti, head of mass casualty plan, Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals
Constable Deborah Russell-Fenwick, British Transport Police, rescuer at the Tavistock Square bus bomb
Julia Peterkin, sister-in-charge, A&E unit, Royal London Hospital
Angela Scarisbrick, Great Ormond Street Hospital, emergency nurse at Russell Square blast
David Boyce, Russell Square station supervisor and rescuer
John Boyle, off-duty Underground driver and rescuer
Alan Dell, liaison manager for London Buses
William Kilminster, London Ambulance paramedic and rescuer
Inspector Stephen Mingay, British Transport Police, first police officer to reach the Piccadilly Line train from the Kings Cross end
Inspector Glen McMunn, British Transport Police, first police officer on the scene from the Russell Square end
Peter Sanders, station manager at King’s Cross Underground and rescuer
Peter Swan, London Ambulance paramedic at Edgware Road station
James Underdown, retired paramedic, one of the first rescuers at the bus bomb
Timothy Wade, London Underground line manager and rescuer at King’s Cross Roy Webb, ambulance crew co-ordinator

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