Terry Higgins memorial quilt

This panel of the Terry Higgins Memorial Quilt marks his Welsh heritage with a painting in the colours of the Welsh flag.

The portrait is now on display in the National Museum of Wales and is based on a previously unseen photograph from Terry’s school days in Haverfordwest. 

This panel is based on memories of Terry from his friends. Friends of Terry’s, Linda Payan and Maxine Saunders, were driving at night while visiting Terry’s mother when they each saw a spirit.

Terry had a keen interest in astrology and wrote a book The Living Astrology, which was published by Golden Hands in 1974. Terry’s zodiac sign was Gemini and the illustration used in his book has been recreated in embroidery.

The panel represents an incident with Terry and the police – Terry was on a float in the parade and saw the police harassing his friends. Terry jumped off the float and confronted the police, saying 'How dare you bitches attack my friends'.

This panel represents Terry Higgins’ time serving in the Royal Navy. It was designed by Lieutenant Commander Oli Brown who was diagnosed with HIV in 2019 and successfully challenged the ban on people living with HIV joining and serving fully in the UK’s Armed Forces.

This panel is a tribute from Rupert Whitaker OBE to his partner Terry and contains memories of their time together.


Rupert is co-founder of Terrence Higgins Trust and has been living with HIV for over 40 years.

It contains lots of hidden details including a letter written to Rupert by Terry when he was at university.

This panel represents Terry’s time working at Parliament for Hansard (the official report of all Parliamentary debates) in the 1970s and includes quotes from people that worked with Terry. The typewriter has CPSA emboldened on it - the union which Terry was an active part of.

This panel represents Terry’s social life and time at Heaven, the nightclub which played a central role in London’s gay nightlife, and where Terry worked as a DJ.

The panel contains the titles of many of Terry’s favourite songs from that era which have been selected by Martyn Butler and Rupert Whitaker.

This panel features 40 messages of inspiration and hope from volunteers, service users and staff of Terrence Higgins Trust, past and present. 

This includes a large heart featuring the game-changing U=U message, which means that we can now say definitively that people living with HIV and on effective treatment can’t pass it on to their partners.

Each panel features part of our Terrence Higgins Trust heart emblem, which is in our logo and centres love, care and compassion in all that we do. When the panels are joined together you can see the heart in full.