The country's first national memorial dedicated to the "courage and personal sacrifice" of police officers killed in the line of duty - including many from the North - was unveiled by the Queen yesterday.
The £2m memorial will serve as a permanent tribute and features the names of 1,600 officers murdered while on duty, killed during an arrest or who died while performing acts of gallantry.
The Lord Foster-designed memorial in The Mall, central London, follows a decade-long campaign by film director Michael Winner, founder of the Police Memorial Association.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, Conservative leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy all took a break from the election campaign to attend its official unveiling yesterday.
Encased behind a glass panel within its black granite centrepiece - an air vent for the London Underground - is a roll of honour, a book containing the names of 1,600 fallen officers.
Beside this stands a column of glass bricks lit in a faint blue hue to represent the blue lamp which always used to signify a police station.
North-East officers among those listed, include Northumbria Police Sgt Bill Forth[correct], who died in 1993 and Sunderland-born PC Keith Blakelock[correct], killed in the 1985 Tottenham riots.
Father-of-two Sgt Forth, 36, was beaten and stabbed to death after answering a routine call to a disturbance in Clover Hill, Sunniside, Gateshead, in April 1993.
Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled a memorial to Sgt Forth in Sunniside in 1995 in a ceremony attended by his widow, Gill.
Paul Weddle, of Gateshead, and Philip English, of Sunniside, were convicted of his murder but English, just 15 at the time, had his sentence quashed at the High Court in 1997.
Sgt Forth's widow Gill campaigned for greater protection for police officers but left the region with her two children after being plagued by obscene phone calls.
PC Blakelock, 40, and his family moved from Washington to London in 1980. Five years later he was hacked to death on the Broadwater Farm Estate.
He was posthumously awarded the Queen's Medal for Gallantry three years later. Winston Silcott, Mark Braithwaite and Engin Raghip were convicted of the killing in 1987, but were cleared on appeal.
Last year, Metropolitan Police reopened the investigation into PC Blakelock's murder.
His widow Elizabeth, of West Boldon, South Tyneside, said she believed the new inquiry would finally bring the killers to justice.
His son Lee also became a police officer and was commended for bravery in April 2003.
Durham PC Jonathan Green, who died while driving home from work last November, was also commemorated by the memorial.
The Queen hailed the "courage and personal sacrifice" of the officers before laying a wreath.
Mr Winner launched his campaign following the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher in 1984.
The Journal: Today's Voice of the North
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North-East police officers killed in the line of duty since 1900
1993 - Sgt Bill Forth, of Northumbria Police, who was beaten and stabbed to death while attempting to make an arrest.
1985 - PC Keith Blakelock, of Sunderland, who was stabbed during riots in Tottenham, London.
1982 - DC James Porter, of Durham Police, was shot while attempting to make an arrest.
1966 - PC Brian Armstrong, of Gateshead, who was stabbed while questioning a suspect.
1965 - PC George Russell, of Cumbria, who was shot while attempting to make an arrest.
1958 - Sgt Stanley Woodward, of Durham, was shot during a terrorist attack while serving in Cyprus.
1952 - PC Thomas Geary, of Durham, who died after being hit by a car.
1940 - PC William Shiell, of Durham, who was shot while chasing a suspect.
1928 - PC Henry Leggett, of Newcastle, who died after being beaten while questioning a suspect.
1927 - PC Mathew Straughan, of Durham was shot while questioning a suspect.
1920 - Insp John Burley, of Middlesbrough, who died after being beaten by a disorderly mob.
1913 - DC George Mussell, of Northumberland, who was shot while attempting to make an arrest.
1913 - PC Andrew Barton, of Northumberland, who was shot while attempting to make an arrest.
The Journal: Today's Voice of the North
