Still Water: New UK memorial to victims of terrorism abroad

A unique memorial to British victims of terrorism overseas – including the 2008 Mumbai attacks – will soon be unveiled in the sylvan National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, in the hope that sitting beside it will offer a kind of balm.

Called Still Water, it will be installed later this year and a dedication event is planned for the spring of 2018. Its design by artist Alison Wilding and sculptor Adam Kershaw has been described as “simple, sensitive and beautiful”.

British nationals have been victims in several terror attacks in recent years, including the Mumbai carnage, the attack on Bataclan theatre in Paris, bombings in Bali, and the explosions in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. A specific compensation scheme is available for such victims and families.

Tobias Ellwood, minister in the Foreign Office until June who was tasked in 2015 by former premier David Cameron to deliver the memorial, said: “My hope is that this memorial will become a peaceful and contemplative site, offering solace and comfort to those affected by the terrible terrorist events that we have seen taking place overseas, and impacting on British citizens.”

Belinda Green, whose husband Stephen was killed in an attack on an Algerian gas plant in 2013, said: “Still Water represents the calm after a storm. For me it reflects how the trauma of the event for any person who suffers loss will eventually lessen but not be forgotten.” Officials said the memorial is sited a short distance within the copse so that it might gradually reveal itself, like coming across a hidden pool within a woodland glade. The pathways leading to the memorial will be made of natural materials. The memorial itself is composed of a concrete ellipse set just below ground level so that its perimeter becomes blurred and softened as nature takes its course.