Un symbol that goes out. World War II veteran Tom Moore, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II last spring, died Tuesday February 2 after testing positive for Covid-19. He was 100 years old. His daughters Hannah and Lucie announced the sad news by press release. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our dear father, ‘Captain’ Tom Moore,” they said, hailing “the remarkable last year” of his life. The Queen sent them a private message to convey her condolences.
The 99-year-old during the first confinement, he had initially set himself a modest goal of raising 1,000 pounds (1,100 euros) to thank the public health service (NHS), then overwhelmed by patients with the virus, for having treated her skin cancer and a broken hip. On the online kitty responsible for collecting donations, he had pledged to travel before his hundredth birthday a hundred lengths of his garden, located in Marston Moretaine, in the south of England. Small bubble of lightness in the middle of a gloomy year, the image of the veteran leaning over his walker and advancing at all costs had galvanized the British and their feeling of gratitude towards caregivers.
Tom Moore, a “national treasure” according to Boris Johnson
Donations had then poured in, even causing the kitty page to crash. Finally, the veteran had raised 33 million pounds (37 million euros), the largest amount ever raised by a single person during a charity walk. “In the last war, the soldiers were on the front lines. This time around, our army is made up of doctors and nurses, ”Captain Tom said,“ happy ”to help“ in this difficult time ”those who had done so much for him.
His achievement has raised him to the rank of celebrity, Prime Minister Boris Johnson going so far as to call him a “national treasure”. The last meters of its hundred lengths, made by a Captain Tom decked out with medals between two rows of soldiers standing at attention, were broadcast on British television, as was the Royal Air Force parade made to mark its hundred years, for which he received 140,000 greeting cards.
Queen Elizabeth II even came out of confinement to knight him, during a ceremony at Windsor Castle. “It is such a reward and to receive it moreover from the hand of His Majesty … What more could you wish for?” Captain Tom had moved after the ceremony. Born in 1920 in Keighley, in the north of England, Tom Moore had served as an engineer in India, Burma and Indonesia during World War II. Returning to the UK, the veteran had taken to working in the family-owned construction business, then moved on to head a concrete business.
This motorcycle enthusiast – who confesses to having been fined for speeding when he was already in his nineties – had met his second wife, Pamela, at the age of fifty, with whom he had two daughters, before she died forty years old later in a retirement home, where he went to visit her every day.
When Tom Moore improvised a singer to support caregivers
Carried by his success, Tom Moore also embarked on the song, taking again for the NHS and with the star Michael Ball the anthem of Liverpool FC “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, become a symbol of mutual aid during the pandemic. The title immediately took first place in singles, making Captain Tom the oldest performer in the world to reach the top spot in the UK charts, according to the Guinness Academy.
“My grandchildren can’t believe I’m number 1 on the charts”, had fun Tom Moore, who also suggested, when he was told that a film about his life was in the works. , Michael Caine or Anthony Hopkins in his role… “provided they are ready to age themselves”!
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