When Jackie Kennedy, her daughter Caroline, her son John F. Kennedy Jr and her brother-in-law Robert Kennedy were photographed with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1965 in Runnymede, Surrey, the mood was somber.

They were not traveling to the UK for an official engagement or summit. Instead, their trip to Britain was born of tragedy; a year and a half earlier, President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Kennedy’s visiting group arrived in Britain with the late queen ready to make a historic gesture in recognition of the values ​​upheld by the assassinated president.

This gesture was not only the opening of a memorial dedicated to President Kennedy, but also the donation of half an acre of land surrounding it to the United States of America.

To this day, everyone who visits the site passes from British to American soil. Speaking at the opening of the memorial, the monarch said: “The unprecedented intensity of this wave of grief, mixed with something akin to despair, which has swept across our people at the news of President Kennedy’s assassination was a measure of the extent to which we recognized what he had already accomplished.

“And the great hopes that accompanied it in a future that was not to be.”

She continued: “Here in Runnymede, 750 years ago, the Magna Carta was signed. It is part of the heritage that the people of the United States of America share with us.”

Her Majesty added: “Therefore, it is entirely appropriate that this is the site of the British memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy.”

The memorial itself bears the words of President Kennedy’s inaugural address on January 20, 1961.

It reads: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us good or evil, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, face any trial, support any friend , we will oppose any enemy to ensure the survival and success of freedom. »