Two years after his teenage daughter died in a quad bike accident, her loss is as raw as ever for Ben Goldsmith.
Now, however, the financier is determined to create a positive legacy from the tragedy by launching a new ‘Nobel prize for nature’ in Iris Goldsmith’s memory.
The son of late billionaire tycoon Sir James Goldsmith tells me he’s setting up the Iris Project to ‘identify and empower the most impressive teenagers we can find who are doing great things to protect and restore nature where they live’.
The winning youngsters will be given cash grants to support their eco-ventures, and the scheme will launch next year. He adds: ‘The Iris Project will seek to build over time a global community of empowered, effective teenage environmentalists.’
Two years after his teenage daughter Iris died in a quad bike accident, her loss is as raw as ever for Ben Goldsmith. Pictured: Iris with her father Ben Goldsmith
Iris, 15, was a nature lover who had a particular interest in cleaning up plastic pollution from beaches
Iris, 15, was a nature lover who had a particular interest in cleaning up plastic pollution from beaches.
Her father, 41, is also writing a ‘nature manifesto’ in her memory, with guidance from Isabel Oakeshott, who co-authored the infamous David Cameron biography with Lord Ashcroft.
‘I’ve written a book about the most vulnerable time in my life,’ he tells me.
‘The only person who’s seen it so far is Isabel Oakeshott, who I’ve got to read it through and help with her insights.’
Of the book, he says: ‘I’ve gone quite deep into what I think about death, but it ends on the thought about how there’s a greater magic to nature than we can see with our senses.
‘That’s as close as I get to religion. It’s about loss and a year of magical thinking.’
Iris — who was one of three children from Ben’s first marriage to banking heiress Kate Rothschild — was riding around the family’s farm in Somerset when her all-terrain buggy overturned. Her friend immediately raised the alarm but she couldn’t be saved.
Getty bride Ivy proves a glass act
Most brides shine on their wedding day, but heiress Ivy Getty was especially luminous.
The great-granddaughter of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty married photographer Toby Engel at the weekend in a four-layered ‘cracked mirror’ dress designed by John Galliano.
Most brides shine on their wedding day, but heiress Ivy Getty was especially luminous. The great-granddaughter of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty married photographer Toby Engel at the weekend in a four-layered ‘cracked mirror’ dress designed by John Galliano
For her rehearsal dinner Ivy Getty wore an equally eye-catching dress with a butterfly theme (pictured)
‘My grandmother [Ann] always wore Galliano,’ explains artist Ivy, 26, daughter of the late John Gilbert Getty and jewellery designer Alyssa Boothby. ‘I knew I wanted him to create the dress for my
