the times | Wednesday May 25 2022 2GM 9
News
Jubilee flypast to feature same type of plane that helped sink Moskva
Charlie Parker
As the saying goes, not all superheroes
wear capes. Some have leaves and
branches, and one very large one has
just had its finishing touches outside
Buckingham Palace.
The Tree of Trees is a towering, living
sculpture marking the Platinum Jubi-
lee, created by Thomas Heatherwick,
the designer. It is 21m-tall, features 350
British-grown trees, and according to
Heatherwick acts as a reminder that
trees are the “superheroes” of our
towns and cities.
As the last branches were being
fitted, junior foresters visited the palace
to help complete the creation by
planting a batch of 6ft saplings in
aluminium pots embossed with the
Queen’s cypher. The pots were added to
the repurposed steel branches and the
youngsters helped to weave LEDs
through the young trees.
Heatherwick said that the sculpture
had been approved by the Queen her-
self. “She gave a big thumbs up,” he said.
“This sculpture acts like a beacon send-
ing one simple, eternal message that
trees are the superheroes of our towns
and cities and matter much more to our
lives than we realise.”
The artwork reflects the planting of
more than a million trees for the
Queen’s Green Canopy initiative to
mark 70 years of her reign.
A team of hundreds of welders,
arborists, engineers and fabricators
worked on the project, which Heather-
wick said he designed in a week.
“We need re-reminding how much
The 21m-tall sculpture was installed outside Buckingham Palace yesterday
built up over the past 18 months but
there has not been a chance to parade
its capabilities because of the pan-
demic. The Poseidon resembles a stan-
dard passenger jet, but is equipped with
radar and sensor systems allowing it to
identify and monitor hostile targets
“above and below the waves”.
It can carry up to 129 sonobuoys to
search for enemy submarines and can
attack them with Mk54 torpedoes. It is
also armed with Harpoon anti-ship
missiles. A US defence source revealed
this month that Ukrainians had passed
on co-ordinates of the Moskva before
the attack, saying: “They reached out tobilities, Greenhowe added. The six-
minute display over The Mall and
Buckingham Palace will present about
70 aircraft in the biggest flypast since
the RAF 100 display in 2018 if the wea-
ther holds.
Air Commodore Mike Baulkwill,
who is overseeing preparations, said it
would show the skill of the pilots. Asked
about what Britain’s enemies would
make of the display, he said: “It contrib-
utes to the view that we can operate
safely and accurately and show them
that we have the mass and capability to
do that wherever it is in the globe.”
Ukraine reports, pages 16-The Duke of Cambridge has praised the
“brilliant, brave and inspirational”
Dame Deborah James as he visited
London’s leading cancer hospital to
view pioneering robotic surgery.
The duke wore medical scrubs at the
Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea,
where James was a patient before being
discharged for home hospice care.
Earlier this month William, who is
president of the Royal Marsden NHS
Foundation Trust, invested James with
her damehood in a private visit to her
home in Woking, Surrey.William praises cancer campaigner
The duke told Lorraine Kimber, 59,
who is being treated for pancreatic
cancer and knows James well: “She was
incredible, incredible. She was sur-
rounded by her family, we had a lovely
afternoon.”
Kimber said William’s visit had been
able to help her “create some fantastic
memories”.
Dr Nicos Fotiadis, the consultant in-
terventional radiologist who also treat-
ed James, thanked William for going to
see her at home as it sent a “powerful”
message. William, slightly embar-
rassed, replied: “No, no. It is important
to acknowledge and recognise peoplelike Deborah who do such an awful lot
to help other people in very difficult cir-
cumstances. She’s done a brilliant job.”
James, 40, was diagnosed with bowel
cancer in 2016 and has spent the last
five years giving a candid account of her
treatment via the You, Me and the Big C
podcast, as well as raising more than
£6 million for cancer research.
William added: “It’s amazing really in
the world we live in that still talking
openly and movingly about cancer is
not as common as it should be.
“So many people are affected by
cancer. I love Deborah, she’s fantastic.
Her legacy is massive.”Valentine LowAn RAF Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraftA real marvel,
the 350-tree
living artwork
outside palace
trees humanise the world around us
and they can’t be taken for granted,” he
said. “The tree twists and spirals sym-
bolically, spraying an array of 350 baby
trees towards their final homes across
the country — a symbol of the much
bigger initiative of planting.”
After the jubilee weekend, the trees
in their pots will be given to community
groups and individuals.
The Tree of Trees will be illuminated
by a senior royal using 3,500 lights in a
night-time ceremony at the palace on
the first evening of the bank holiday
weekend. It will act as the focal point in
a chain of 2,800 beacons being lit across
the world in tribute to the Queen.
Saplings used in the display include
alders, field maples, hazels, hornbeams,
larches, rowans, silver birches, small-
leaved limes and whitebeams.
Sir Nicholas Bacon, chairman of the
Queen’s Green Canopy, said: “The Tree
of Trees offers a message of hope,
regeneration and celebration to people
and communities around the world.”
The reused steel for the structure’s
metal tubes came from Cleveland Steel
in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. The trees
were grown from seed by Barcham’s
Nursery in Ely, Cambridgeshire, the
sculpture was made in Hove, and the
pots were spun and made in Halifax.
Heatherwick said of the hundreds of
saplings grown from seed: “We had to
have spares because there were deer
nibbling away at various different ones
— funny British problems.”
The completion yesterday had been
delayed for about half an hour owing to
a thunderstorm.Valentine Low
The same type of advanced patrol air-
craft that was used in the attack that de-
stroyed the pride of the Russian navy in
the war with Ukraine will soar over
London in the jubilee flypast next week.
A Poseidon MRA1 operated by US
soldiers is understood to have con-
firmed the co-ordinates of the Moskva
before the warship was sent to the
bottom of the Black Sea by Ukrainian
Neptune missiles.
At the rehearsal of the air show for
the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee yesterday
senior officers revealed that the RAF
would showcase one of its new Posei-
don surveillance planes for the first
time at a big event. Squadron Leader
Jon Greenhowe, who is organising the
event, told The Times: “The new Posei-
don... now defends the skies and the
seas on behalf of UK defence.
“It’s a very capable aircraft, a multi-
mission aircraft [with] a great deal of
sensors and skilled operators.
“We are very proud to say that is the
first time you will have seen that partic-
ipating in one of the flypasts.”
The first of nine Poseidon P-8 mari-
time patrol aircraft arrived at RAF Kin-
loss Airfield in 2020. The fleet has been
PETER NICHOLLS/REUTERSthe US to confirm that it was the Mosk-
va and we confirmed it.”
The Times learnt that a US navy Po-
seidon aircraft was in the area. The fly-
past next Thursday is a chance for Brit-
ain to “show off” its operational capa-Charles
embraces
the old
and new
I
t was just another
day for the
Prince of Wales:
one moment he
was dressing up
in ancient regalia for
a medieval ceremony
in Westminster Abbey
to install nine new
knights and dames of
the Order of the Bath,the next he was
swapping banter with
Ant and Dec on a
West End stage.
Charles was at the
Theatre Royal for the
Prince’s Trust awards,
where the youngest
winner, as “education
achiever”, was
Daniella Williams, 16.The Prince of Wales
installed nine new
knights and dames
of the Order of the
Bath at Westminster
Abbey yesterdaySPLASH NEWSStroke fears
for Meghan’s
father, 77
Keiran Southern Los AngelesThe father of the Duchess of Sussex has
been taken to hospital after suffering a
suspected stroke, according to reports.
Thomas Markle, 77, is said to have
fallen ill at his home in Rosarito,
Mexico, on Monday night.
Pictures published by the US show-
biz website TMZ showed Markle lying
on an ambulance stretcher with an oxy-
gen mask strapped to his face. The web-
site said he was taken across the border
to a hospital in Chula Vista, California.
Markle could not speak to paramed-
ics and had to write his symptoms on a
piece of paper, according to TMZ, and it
now appears unlikely he will travel to
the UK next month for the Queen’s
Platinum Jubilee as planned. He had
said he planned to visit Windsor Castle
to celebrate the jubilee, and he hoped to
meet members of the royal family and
his grandchildren for the first time.
California-based Harry, 37, and
Meghan, 40, are expected to fly to the
UK for the jubilee celebrations, bring-
ing their children to London for the first
time. However, they will not join the
Queen on the Buckingham Palace bal-
cony during the Trooping the Colour
ceremony.
Meghan’s strained relationship with
her father has played out in the public
eye. A five-page handwritten letter she
sent to Markle in August 2018 was at the
heart of a high-profile legal battle. The
duchess successfully sued the publisher
of The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online
over a series of articles which repro-
duced parts of the note.
Markle has given a series of televi-
sion interviews in which he has been
critical of both his daughter and his
son-in-law. Speaking to Good Morning
Britain in 2021 he said he would not stop
addressing the media until Meghan
talked to him. “It’s time to talk with each
other, we’re family. The kids are going
to grow up without knowing they have
two families.”