Ben Goldsmith pays tribute to his late daughter Iris on what would have been her 22nd birthday after her tragic death aged 15

Ben Goldsmith paid a heartfelt tribute to his late daughter Iris on what would have been her 22nd birthday. 

Iris, the eldest of financier Ben's children, died on his 280-acre Cannwood Farm estate in Somerset in July 2019.

She was playing around in an off-road farm vehicle when it lost balance, flipped over and pinned her to the ground.

The friend, who had been riding with her, was unhurt, but the vehicle was too heavy for her to lift.

By the time Ben, who was playing cricket with friends and family at Charterhouse public school in Surrey, arrived an hour later, Iris had died.

On Tuesday, Ben shared a photo of himself with Iris as he gave her a kiss on the forehead. In the caption he shared E.E. Cummings' poem I Carry Your Heart.     

'I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart) I am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling). 

'I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you. 

'Here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart. 

'I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart). E.E. Cummings'. 

'Iris would have turned 22 today.' 

Ben, the son of billionaire tycoon Sir James Goldsmith, also has two sons, Frank and Isaac, with his first wife, Kate Rothschild.

He is also father to Eliza, Arlo, Vita and Vicent with his second wife Jemima Jones.  

Speaking to Daily Mail in 2023, Ben opened up about Iris' legacy and how he's immortalising her love of nature in the Iris Project - an initiative that helps fund and support young climate activists around the world.

He said that his kids continue to be inspired by Iris and that some are even getting involved in the environmental project set up in their sister's name.

'I think, that they themselves are interested in devoting their lives to environmental work,' he explained.

'I think they love the idea that in Iris's name, we're helping teenagers around the world to do the kinds of things that Iris will never have the chance to do.

'In fact, my older son Frankie, is going to go and work with one of our prize winners in Bali...He's studying engineering, and he's going to go and be an engineer on the team.'

Ben added that being committed to the project work 'gives them comfort'.

However, his 'little ones'  - 'don't really know about' the organisation.

'Iris is a kind of mythological creature for them,' he explained.

'They don't remember her fully, and they don't fully understand where she's gone.

'They just know that she's gone to heaven. They don't know where that is.'

Ben says that they see her as a 'guardian angel' and 'dream about her'.

'I think, as they grow up, they'll come to appreciate this Iris prize, and I think they'll want to be involved in it as well,' he added.

Ben and Iris's mother Kate Rothschild are now divorced, but have both established the Iris Project in memory of their daughter. 

He married his second wife Jemima in 2014.