News
TRH host a reception in honour of the British Memorial Garden Trust
27th April 2008
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall this evening held a reception to honour a garden commemorating the British victims of the September 11th terror attacks in New York.
Sixty seven Britons died during the attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001.
To commemorate the British citizens that died, a memorial garden has been designed and opened near to the ground zero site in Lower Manhattan. The Prince is Patron of the British Memorial Garden Trust.
Their Royal Highnesses held a reception to mark the fifth anniversary of the founding of The British Memorial Garden at Clarence House this evening.
The garden has been designed with "British touches" and bears the name of every UK county on its stone floor. It will be fully completed next year.
Camilla Hellman who conceived the idea of a garden for the British victims said: "We are honoured and delighted that His Royal Highness is hosting this gathering for the British Memorial Garden.
"I wanted the garden to be something that gave something back to the city of New York."
The garden is also intended to celebrate the historic ties between the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and help revitalise Lower Manhattan.
All the elements of the garden have come from the UK, including stone from Scotland and Wales and benches of English stone manufactured in Northern Ireland.
British landscape artist Julian Bannerman who designed the garden said: "It's a very simple garden because like a lot of New York, space is limited.
"The memorial also means hope for the future and other things will happen in it."
Alex Clarke, whose daughter Suria, a 30-year-old public relations executive died during the attacks, said the memorial garden was very special to families who had lost loves ones during the atrocity.
She said: "It's very important to us because it's a sort of a little bit of England in New York.
"The majority of UK families have never had a body to bury, so it's a place for us to go and sit and think. It's very special."