The Dundonian who lost his life on 9/11: remembering Derek Sword 25 years on

September 11, 2001 is a date etched into history.

Almost everyone old enough to remember that Tuesday can recall where they were when news began emerging from New York that a passenger plane had struck the World Trade Center.

Then came the second plane. Within hours, the Twin Towers had fallen, the Pentagon had been attacked and another hijacked aircraft had crashed in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed in the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.

Among them was a young man from Dundee.

His name was Derek Sword.

Twenty-five years on from the attacks, his story remains Dundee’s deeply personal connection to a day that changed the world.

From Dundee to New York

Born on November 30, 1971, Derek grew up in Dundee alongside his twin brother Allan and brother Graeme.

He attended Barnhill Primary School and Monifieth High School and was an exceptionally talented sportsman from a young age.

Sport would remain a huge part of his life. He played tennis for Scotland as a teenager and was also a talented squash player, with roots at Forthill Squash Club.

But Derek’s ambitions would eventually take him thousands of miles from home.

In 1995, aged 23, he moved from Scotland to New York to pursue a career in finance.

It was a city he quickly came to love.

Derek worked as an equities sales analyst for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, while becoming part of New York’s sporting community through the prestigious New York Athletic Club.

He played squash there several times a week and became the club’s squash champion in 2001. It was also through the club that Derek met Maureen Sullivan, the woman he planned to marry.

The couple had become engaged just ten days before September 11 and were planning their wedding for the following year.

Derek’s career was thriving too. By 2001, the 29-year-old was working from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ offices on the 89th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

September 11, 2001

At 8.46am on September 11, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.

Derek was in the neighbouring South Tower.

In the confusion that followed, he contacted the people closest to him to tell them that he was safe.

Contemporary reports from the days immediately after the attack recorded that Derek called his father, David, in Scotland to reassure his family that he was not in the tower which had been struck.

His mother Irene later recalled how quickly the call had come after the first impact.

It would be the last time his family heard from him.

At 9.03am, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.

Derek was still inside.

He was one of the employees of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods who lost their lives that morning, and his body was never recovered.

For his family and friends back home in Dundee, the enormous tragedy unfolding thousands of miles away had suddenly become unimaginably personal.

Derek was just 29 years old.

A legacy stretching around the world

But Derek’s story did not end on September 11.

His love of squash would ultimately inspire something that continues around the world a quarter of a century later.

Friends from the squash communities in Britain and New York wanted to find a way to remember Derek and the other players who had been killed in the attacks.

In January 2002, a memorial match was held in London in Derek’s honour.

From that came World Squash Day.

The event has since grown into a global celebration of the sport, with clubs and players around the world taking part. Former world number one Peter Nicol, who had been a Scottish junior international teammate of Derek, became president of the initiative.

The Derek Sword Trophy was also created, contested between teams representing New York and the UK, ensuring his name remained part of the sport he loved.

And in New York, Derek’s name is among the thousands permanently inscribed at the National September 11 Memorial.

Dundee remembers Derek

Twenty-five years is an extraordinary length of time.

A generation has now grown up with no memory of watching the events of September 11 unfold live. The skyline of New York has changed, the site of the Twin Towers has become a place of remembrance, and the world itself was transformed by what happened that morning.

But behind the numbers are thousands of individual stories.

Derek’s was one of them.

He was a son, brother, fiancé, friend, colleague and sportsman. A young Dundonian who had travelled across the Atlantic, built a successful career in one of the world’s greatest cities and was preparing to begin a new chapter of his life.

He was 29 years old and just weeks away from his 30th birthday.

Twenty-five years after his death, Derek Sword remains Dundee’s deeply personal connection to September 11.

And in Dundee, New York and through squash courts around the world, his name continues to be remembered.