Conservative environmentalist Ben Goldsmith has spoken about how his love of nature helped him cope with the death of his 15-year-old daughter Iris, who died in a quad bike accident in 2019. In a recent interview, he described how immersing himself in nature and rewilding his Somerset farm provided a sense of hope and meaning during his grief.
Goldsmith, a financier from a prominent family, recalled a moment days after the accident when he swam in his pond and felt a sense of peace. He then began restoring his land by removing livestock and fencing, allowing nature to return. 'The changes were almost instantaneous,' he said, adding that watching the land come back to life gave him joy and purpose.
He acknowledged the difficulty of coping with the loss, describing how his mind replayed the accident with endless 'what ifs.' However, he found healing in helping nature recover, saying, 'Being able to heal something else and fix something else, perhaps in Iris’s honour too, perhaps that was the reason why it was so healing.'
Goldsmith has since advocated for greater access to nature, particularly for underprivileged urban communities. He convinced London Mayor Sadiq Khan to establish a rewilding taskforce, arguing that 'there is a terribly underappreciated and pernicious inequity in this country when it comes to access to nature.'
