THE Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall met bereaved families from York today as they paid tribute to those who died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Prince Charles laid a wreath at the opening of a memorial in London's Natural History Museum for the 155 Britons who died in the disaster on Boxing Day 2004.

The Duchess had an emotional conversation with Yvette Bent, whose daughter Sarah, 19, from Copmanthorpe, died in Kho Phi Phi, Thailand. Both women were in tears while they were speaking to each other.

Mrs Bent, 55, from York, attended the opening of the memorial with her husband Paul and said the monument was especially important to her family because Sarah's body was never recovered. The body of her boyfriend Robert Rowbottom, also from York, was also not found.

Mrs Bent said: "It is hugely important because neither of them have been found. We have nowhere to go. It has been hugely important for us to have a place."

She said the location of the memorial was fitting because the Bent family used to take trips to the museum when Sarah was young.

Miss Bent, who was reading a degree of travel and tourism at Northumbria University, had gone to Thailand to meet her boyfriend.

Mr Rowbottom, a former pupil at St Peter’s School, had been on a gap year after he graduated from Newcastle University, and Miss Bent went to spend Christmas with him. The pair were due to leave the island on Boxing Day morning.

The names of the British victims are engraved on the floor beneath a 115-tonne granite monolith that stands in the grounds of the museum.

York widow Denise Magson, who lost her company director husband Steve, of Holgate, in the tsunami also attended the event.

Steve, 54, was killed on the beach, but Denise and their daughter, India, now 18, who had been kayaking, survived.

Mrs Magson said: “It was a brilliant event. It was in a fantastic setting at the museum and the whole opening went really well. Charles and Camilla spent a lot of time talking to everyone, including my daughter and I, and it was a great opportunity to meet up and speak to all the families affected by the tsunami.”

More than 225,000 fell victim to the waves from Indonesia in the east to Somalia while millions more were left homeless.