HORATIO'S Garden has announced the appointment of its first ever president. 

Based in Salisbury, Horatio’s Garden cares for the wellbeing of people after spinal injury in beautiful, vibrant sanctuaries within NHS spinal injury centres. Leading designers create the accessible gardens where the charity’s team, alongside volunteers and creatives, care for people and plants alike.

The charity was set up in memory of schoolboy Horatio Chapple, from Salisbury who died during an expedition to Svalbard in 2011, when he was 17.

Now The Countess of Radnor has been announced of the president of the charity. 

The Countess has been founding patron of the charity since its inception in 2013 following the opening of the first Horatio’s Garden at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre at Salisbury District Hospital.

Salisbury Journal: Lady Radnor to become first president of Horatio's Garden

Lady Radnor’s long-term support has ranged from hosting multiple events at her home Longford Castle and most recently, opening Horatio’s Garden Northern Ireland, the charity’s seventh UK garden. As president, she will represent the charity, help further the charity’s aims and promote appeals and initiatives.

Lady Radnor said: “What a huge honour it has been to be asked to be president of Horatio’s Garden. The charity means so very much to me personally and watching it move from strength to strength over the years has given so much to so many, never forgetting this vision was the concept of a seventeen-year-old boy.

“Thank you to everyone who contributes in any way possible and thank you to the charity for giving me a role to live up to.”

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Horatio’s Garden won "Best in Show" at last year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show for its immersive and accessible show garden designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg. This year, the charity returns to Chelsea with a stand selling its beautiful selection of bestselling merchandise on Cross Way and will be the charity partner of Belgravia in Bloom festival from Monday, May 20 – Monday, May 27.

Dr Olivia Chapple, Founder and Chair of Trustees of Horatio’s Garden said: “We are enormously grateful for Lady Radnor’s incredible patronage and her family’s unwavering support of the charity over the last twelve years.

"We are delighted that she will be taking up the role of president at this vital time for the charity to help us to achieve our vision of a future where no one has a spinal injury without access to a Horatio’s Garden.”

Horatio’s Garden South West, designed by Cleve West, opens to the public for a private tour led by its head gardener on 23 May and for an event in support of the National Garden Scheme on 8 June.

Find out more at horatiosgarden.org.uk/events