News
TRH visit Ground Zero in New York
1st November 2005
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited Ground Zero as the first stop of their tour of the United States.
The Prince and The Duchess were taken to the site of the World Trade Centre straight after landing in New York to pay their respects to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 and to meet relatives of those who died.
The Duchess left a bouquet of yellow and orange orchids, roses and lilies at the site memorial with a hand-written message from them both that read “In enduring memory of our shared grief, Charles and Camilla.”
The couple spent some 20 minutes at the site with the New York Governor George Pataki and the British Consul-General Sir Philip Thomas.
Flying above the memorial against a brilliant blue sky was a Union Flag recovered from the rubble.
The Prince and The Duchess were shown a framed picture of when the flag was last flown, on July 10th, the day Britain remembered the victims of the London bombings with a two-minute silence.
The Union Flag flew today, alongside the World Trade Centre flag, to mark the solidarity between Britain and the US.
Afterwards, Their Royal Highnesses met relatives of those who died in the attacks in the family room, which has seats inside for the bereaved to sit and grieve with several windows overlooking the expansive area.
The Prince and The Duchess then went to visit the British Memorial Garden which is dedicated to the memory of the 67 British victims of the atrocity. The Prince is Patron of the project which is set for completion in 2006. It was designed by Julian and Isabel Bannerman and is intended to be a gift to the people of New York and provide a place of reflection and remembrance.
The Duchess was presented with flowers from five-year-old New Yorker Katherine Beaumont before Their Royal Highnesses unveiled a dedication stone in memory of the British victims of the terrorist attacks.
The inscription on the memorial stone, made of Morayshire stone, reads: “This stone was laid on 1 November 2005 by the Patron of this garden, The Prince of Wales.”
The stone also bears The Prince‘s crest of feathers.
After meeting some of the relatives of the British victims near the garden, The Prince said to them: “Both my wife and I are profoundly moved by what we saw, not just the scale of the whole outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and loss.
“In the four years that have passed the sorrow is not lessened.
“Our hearts go out to you and also to the families of the New York fire and police departments who sacrificed their lives.”
Alex Clarke, chairwoman of the September 11th Family Support Group in the UK, who lost her daughter Suria, 30, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee, said: “Charles has been behind us and with us from the very beginning, quietly and personally.”
Ms Clarke added: “They are both very relaxed people. They obviously spent much more time than they should have done with us but they were genuinely interested in our stories.”
The Prince then visited the United Nations, where he met Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the UN, and attended a Youth Enterprise event.
Youth Business International (YBI) is a programme run by The Prince of Wales's International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) which has been working with the UN for many years to promote youth entrepreneurship in developing countries.
Adapted from a model pioneered by The Prince's Trust, YBI to date has helped 13,000 young people around the world realise their ambitions to start their own business.
The Prince and Kofi Annan joined a meeting to discuss how business leaders, UN Agencies, and others involved in encouraging youth entrepreneurship can tackle the problem of youth unemployment and under-employment throughout the world, particularly in new and emerging economies.
Two young businesspeople Thabo Mathibedi, owner of a hairdressers, from Pretoria, South Africa and Charmaine Downes co-owner of an art-café, from Bridgetown, Barbados gave short presentations about their business experiences.
They told the meeting how they have been supported by local charities, some of them affiliated with The Prince's UK-based Youth Business International programme.
In the evening Their Royal Highnesses attended a reception at the Museum of Modern Art.
The Prince and The Duchess, who was wearing a midnight blue velvet dress with a large white lace collar, made their way inside accompanied by the host, British Consul General Sir Phillip Thomas, as a jazz band played in the corridor.
The event was considered an opportunity for the couple to meet New Yorkers and celebrities from the art and media world, with guests including Donald Trump, Sting and Trudi Styler, Yoko Ono and Joan Collins.