An American businesswoman is planning to cream off £5m commission from an international appeal to build a memorial garden to Princess Diana which claims to have the approval of the Queen, the Queen Mother and the Prince of Wales.
A Guardian investigation has discovered that at last month's official launch, its promoter, Oklahoma businesswoman Bonnie Masterson, made exaggerated claims about royal patronage and asked people to donate money to a trust that does not yet exist.
The garden is seen as a lifeline to save the world's oldest national plant society, the 125-year-old Royal National Rose Society (RNRS), whose patron is the Queen Mother. The charity - which has a deficit of £225,000 - is completing a deal to buy 20 hectares (50 acres) of farmland to convert into three royal gardens next to its headquarters in Chiswell Green, Hertfordshire.
It has appointed Ms Masterson - who contacted the charity through the internet - as its vice-chairwoman for international funding and is to appoint her to chair a new historic trust. In return it signed a contract with her which will give her 25% commission on any sum raised for the garden.
Her appointment has split the society and led to the resignation of Roy Ward, its president-elect. The project is to be debated at an emergency general meeting of the society on October 6. Complaints by members have also been made to the charity commission.
Ms Masterson is also in a dispute with Frances Shand Kydd, Diana's mother, and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, her sister, over the trademark ing of roses called England's Rose, People's Princess, Crowning Glory, Forever Royal and Mummy, in Australia.
She has the use of domain names such as englands-rose.com, dianasroses.com, princessofwalesrose.com, and herboysrose.com in the US. An attempt by the Diana memorial fund - which protects the princess's name from commercial exploitation - failed to get these domain names revoked at an arbitration hearing in the US.
Ms Masterson was warned, however, that "the panel is critical of strangers who seek to exploit the names of per sons, living or dead, for mere commercial gain".
According to the press release launching the appeal and her englandsrose website, the royal national rose garden will be "the first major public memorial to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales". In fact 30 gardens have been approved, according to the Diana memorial fund.
The statement says: "It has been approved by RNRS royal patron, the Queen Mother, and HRH the Prince of Wales and other members of the royal family have also given their approval to the £20m project."
It quotes Ms Masterson as vice-patron international funding and chair of the RNRS historic trust: "We are delighted that we now reveal our plans for the royal national rose garden to the world.
"It is thanks to the dedication of the Royal National Rose Society and the team working on this project that we have managed to get this far and we hope the public will embrace the garden as a place where they can contemplate and commemorate a much-loved figure." The site includes an address to send money to the trust.
Ms Masterson originally promised to donate the £160,000 needed to buy the site for the garden - she is described as an anonymous major donor in the 1999 society accounts. The Prince of Wales was also informed that "the necessary funds have been made available by a group of benefactors including some from America".
But inquiries by the Guardian revealed that the Prince of Wales and Prince William turned down an invitation to launch the appeal on April 5 this year. Prince Charles was said to be delighted to know of the society's project but declined to help.
The Queen also differentiated between the plan for a golden jubilee garden on the site and the Princess Diana garden - giving her approval only to the former - according to the society's director general, Ken Grapes. Only the Queen Mother approved the entire project.
David Jones, president of the RNRS, disclosed that the historic trust had still to be legally established and that they have it had no details of the money that has been raised.
Mr Jones also defended the commission that was to be paid to Ms Master son if she raised the £20m. "We are very satisfied with the deal. We shall be getting 75% of the money which we would never have got."
He disclosed that Ms Masterson had been unable to come up with the money to buy the land. "We have taken out a loan for the money to buy the land to speed things up. The proposals have so far cost the society a lot of money. We spent £90,000 on getting planning permission and we spent a lot of money on a proposal to the millennium commission which was turned down."
He admitted the royal approval for the scheme fell short of an official endorsement from the Prince of Wales or the Queen for the project. "Silence could be taken as approval. There has been no objection," he said.
Ms Masterson said last night: "I have signed an agreement with the society giving them the rights to the various products to promote the garden. So far I have given 100% of all the money raised to the project.
"Obviously though this a three-year job and I need to have a pension so I would not be able to do this for nothing. You could not devote three years of your life for no money."
She said she decided not to give the money for the land because she had to divert other funds to fighting the Diana memorial fund over the use of the domain names in the US.
