Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey, and just over 20 miles (32 km) west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is the site of a collection of memorials. Runnymede Borough is named after the area.

The name Runnymede is used commonly now to refer to land in National Trust ownership in the Thames flood plain south-west of the river between Old Windsor and Egham. The area comprises Long Mede and Runnymede which together with Coopers Hill Slopes is managed by the National Trust, and Yard Mede.

The landscape of Runnymede is characterised as ‘Thames Basin Lowland’, urban fringe, which is a gently undulating vale of small-scale fields interspersed by woods, shaws ponds, meadows, and heath. The National Trust area is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) which contains a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Both sites are overseen by Runnymede Borough Council.

The National Trust holding encompasses 188 acres (0.76 km²) donated in 1929 by Cara Rogers Broughton and her two sons. (The American-born widow of Urban Hanlon Broughton, she became the first Lady Fairhaven.) The gift was given in memory of Urban Broughton. At the time, The New Bedford Standard-Times commented "It must be a source of gratification to all Americans, and especially to us here and in Fairhaven, that the presentation of this historic spot as public ground has been brought about by an American woman, an appropriate enough circumstance considering that the great charter underlies the UsA's conception of government and human rights."

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy  pronunciation (help·info) (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.

After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. He was the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43, the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president. Kennedy is the only Catholic president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement, and early stages of the Vietnam War.

Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe (1900–1996) was an English landscape architect, garden designer, Architect and author.

Jellicoe was born in Chelsea. He studied at the Architectural Association in London in 1919 and won a Rome Scholarship in 1923 which enabled him to research his first book Italian Gardens of the Renaissance with John C. Shepherd. This pioneering study did much to re-awaken interest in this great period of landscape design and through its copious photographic illustrations publicized the then perilously decayed condition of many of the gardens. In 1929 he was a founding member of the Landscape Institute and from 1939-49 he was its President. In 1948 he became the founding President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). From 1954-68 he was a member of Royal Fine Art Commission and from 1967-74 a Trustee of Tate Gallery. He died in 1996, the best-known English landscape architect of his generation.

Italian Gardens of the Renaissance (with J Shepherd) 1926

A Landscape plan for Sark. This report was presented to an informal meeting of the members of the 1967 Baroque Gardens of Austria. 1932

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms, and head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. She is also head of state of the Crown Dependencies.

Elizabeth was born in London, and educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne as George VI in 1936 on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, in which she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. On the death of her father in 1952, she became Head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon. Her coronation service in 1953 was the first to be televised. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. Today, in addition to the first four aforementioned countries, Elizabeth is Queen of Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.