Appeal for 9/11 British Memorial launched

By Amy Caulfield, PA News, 8 September 2004

An appeal to raise £1 million for a garden to commemorate Britons who died in the September 11 terrorist atrocity was launched today.

The British Memorial Garden is billed as a unique and permanent memorial in New York to the 67 British victims of the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001. It will be a focal point of remembrance for the British community, commemorating Britons who died in both World Wars as well as those who perished in the 2001 attack.

The appeal for money - which has already raised £100,000 in the UK - was launched by Tory MP David Tredinnick, co-chairman of British Memorial Garden Trust UK Ltd, just days before the third anniversary. He said: "I think it's very poignant that we're making this appeal now, at a time when terrorism has come back in our faces with this terrible tragedy in Beslan in Russia."

He added: "It's very important we remember our own dead in some way and this garden is going to make a significant contribution to easing the pain and giving British people in New York somewhere to go where they can hold their own occasions."

Mr Tredinnick said the families of the British victims were in full support of the garden. "I think it is hard to imagine the trauma of losing someone in those circumstances but this, in some small way, will hopefully go towards reducing the effects. It is a place where they can go and reflect, and I think it also has a healing impact in that it enables people to release the trauma," he said.

The garden is being built in Hanover Square, one of the most historic in Manhattan and three blocks from the site of Ground Zero. It will be a place of reflection and recreation and will incorporate different elements of gardens across the UK.

Camilla Hellman, president of the British Memorial Garden Trust in the US, said: "I thought we should make a wonderful British garden so the families, when they visit New York, can come to Ground Zero and feel this wonderful sense of renewal and safety."

Between April and July, more than 200 MPs signed a Parliamentary Motion in support of the charity and its objectives. This new appeal will specifically target city companies and foundations but individuals are also being invited to make donations.

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