From Chelsea to Arromanches

A moving and sensitive garden for WWII veterans’ charity D-Day Revisited, exhibited at the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, has now been moved to a permanent site at Arromanches, Normandy.

The ‘D-Day 75 Garden’ designed by John Everiss, pays tribute to the last surviving D-Day veterans and with the help of the Royal Engineers, has been moved by John and rebuilt in seven days, above Arromanches overlooking Gold Beach and the famous Mulberry Harbour.

The garden has been funded by generous contributions from HM Government, supporting businesses and the British public, in an expression of collective national gratitude to the Normandy veterans for the role they played in the D-Day Landings 75 years ago. This Garden is a gift from the veterans to the communities they fought to liberate in 1944.

The Mayor of Arromanches-les-Bains, Patrick Jardin, says: “We are pleased and proud to give the D-Day 75 Garden a permanent home in our town of Arromanches. Thousands of people come here every year from all over the world to learn about the story of D-Day. This Garden epitomises that story and will inspire younger generations on the 75th anniversary and in years to come.”

The Garden will be officially opened in a ceremony in the presence of 50 Normandy veterans on Thursday 6th June, 2019, the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

(above) Veterans at RHS Chelsea

With surviving veterans now approaching 100 years of age, this year’s anniversary will be the final opportunity for many Normandy veterans to return to the beaches and battlefields and pay tribute to friends they left behind. The ‘D-Day 75 Garden’ is a lasting legacy from the British veterans attending the poignant commemorations in Normandy this June.

During the Chelsea Flower Show the Garden captured the imagination of all the visitors to the Show as well as from people across the country. The project evolved into an inspiring, community driven story with support from British and French businesses in the ambitious plan to transport the Garden from Chelsea to France.

All the compost used in the rebuild of the Garden has been supplied free of charge by Bord na Mona’s ‘Growise’ brand while British supply chain company FreshLinc provided the three articulated lorries at no cost to transport the Garden from Chelsea down to Portsmouth and across the Channel to Caen. Brittany Ferries gave free passage to vehicles transporting the Garden across the Channel.

You can still support this national project by visiting the crowdfunding page at https://www.gofundme.com/dday-75-garden or TEXT “DDAY” to 70500 to donate £2.

All images are strictly ©D-Day Revisited.