Jack Merritt

Jack Merritt was a 25-year-old rehabilitation worker from London who was killed alongside Saskia Jones in the London Bridge terror attack on in 2019.

On 29 November 2019, Usman Khan, a 28-year-old British-Pakistani from Stoke-on-Trent with a history of Islamist extremism, carried out a terrorist stabbing attack at a Learning Together offender rehabilitation conference in Fishmongers’ Hall near London Bridge.

Khan, who had previously been convicted for terrorism offences including a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange and establish a training camp in Pakistan, was attending the event on a one-day exemption from his London ban while on licence from a 16-year sentence.

Wearing a fake suicide vest and with two knives taped to his wrists, he stabbed five people, killing two conference participants—Jack Merritt (25), a Cambridge criminology graduate and course coordinator, and Saskia Jones (23), a former student—by stabbing them in the chest; three others (two women seriously and one chef less seriously) were injured.

Khan fled onto London Bridge, where members of the public heroically restrained him using a fire extinguisher, narwhal tusk, and other improvised weapons until armed police arrived and shot him dead. The attack was motivated by Islamic extremism, with ISIS later claiming responsibility

His death devastated those closest to him and he continues to be remembered as a much-loved compassionate and idealistic young man whose loss is felt deeply by his community.

Rest in peace Jack. You will not be forgotten.