Captain Tom
Thomas Moore (born 30 April 1920), popularly known as Captain Tom, is a former British Army officer known for his efforts to raise money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Moore served in India and the Burma campaign during the Second World War. He later became an instructor in armoured warfare. After the war, he worked as managing director of a concrete company and was an avid motorcycle racer.
On 6 April 2020, at the age of 99, he began to walk around his garden in aid of NHS Charities Together during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of raising £1,000 by his hundredth birthday. On the morning of his birthday the total he raised passed £30 million, which later increased to over £32.1 million. In doing so, he made many media appearances and became a popular household name in the United Kingdom, generating much interest in his life story, and earned a number of accolades. Soon after the walk, he featured in a cover version of the song "You'll Never Walk Alone", with proceeds going to the same charity. The single topped the UK music charts and made him the oldest person to achieve a UK number one.
His 100th birthday was marked in a number of ways, including a flypast by the Royal Air Force. He received over 150,000 cards, and was appointed as honorary colonel of the Army Foundation College.
Early life and family
Moore was born in Keighley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on 30 April 1920 and grew up in the town. His father, Wilfred, was one of a family of builders.[1][2][3] He was educated at Keighley Grammar School and completed an apprenticeship in civil engineering.[4]
Military service
Moore enlisted in the 8th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment (8 DWR) at the beginning of the Second World War, stationed in Cornwall.[1] He was selected for officer training in 1940,[4] and attended an Officer Cadet Training Unit before being commissioned as a second lieutenant on 28 June 1941.[5]
On 22 October 1941, Moore became a member of the Royal Armoured Corps. This was because the 8 DWR became an armoured unit designated as the 145th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps.[6][4] Later, he was transferred to the 9th Battalion (9 DWR) in India, which had also been redesignated as the 146th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps. He was initially posted to Bombay (now Mumbai) and subsequently to Calcutta (now Kolkata).[1] His regiment were equipped with M3 Lee tanks and participated in the Battle of Ramree Island.[7] He was promoted to war-substantive lieutenant on 1 October 1942 and to temporary captain on 11 October 1944.[8]
He served in Arakan in western Burma (now Myanmar) and afterward in Sumatra after the Japanese surrender,[4][9] by which time he had risen to the rank of captain.[4][9] On his return to Britain, he served as an instructor at the Armoured Fighting Vehicle School in Bovington, Dorset.
Career and hobbies
After leaving the army, he worked as managing director of a Fens-based company manufacturing concrete,[12] Cawood Concrete Products Ltd, which was renamed March Concrete Products Ltd. after he led a management buyout in 1983.[13] The company was sold to ARC in 1987.[13]
For 64 years, he organised the DWR's annual reunion.[1]
Moore raced motorcycles competitively, wearing the number 23.[14] He rode a Scott motorcycle, winning several trophies.[1]
On Christmas Day 1983 he was a contestant on the BBC Television game show Blankety Blank.[15]
Tom's 100th Birthday Walk
On 6 April 2020, with his hundredth birthday approaching, Moore began a fundraising campaign to raise money for NHS Charities Together, a group of charities supporting staff and volunteers caring for COVID-19 patients in the British public health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. He aimed to complete one hundred 25 m (27 yd) laps of his garden, ten laps per day, with the help of a walking frame, branding the endeavour "Tom's 100th Birthday Walk For The NHS".[12][16][17]
The initial £1,000 goal having been realised on 10 April, the target was increased, first to £5,000,[18] and eventually to £500,000 as more people around the world became involved.[19] Fund-raising soared exponentially when the British media publicised the endeavour. Moore, who joined Twitter in the same month, used the site to express joy over accumulating such a staggering amount of money for the NHS.[20]
On the morning of his birthday he had raised £30 million[21] The JustGiving page for his walk reports that, as of 17:45 April, he had raised in excess of £32.1 million,[22] the largest-ever amount raised by a JustGiving campaign,[23][24] beating the previous record of £5.2 million raised (partially posthumously) by Stephen Sutton.[25][26] More than 1.4 million individuals have donated.[22]
Funds raised by Moore are being spent on such things as well-being packs for National Health Service staff facilitating rest and recuperation rooms, devices to enable hospital patients to keep in contact with family members, and community groups who support patients once discharged from hospitals.[9][27]
He achieved his initial target of one hundred laps on the morning of 16 April, watched at a safe distance by a guard of honour from the 1st Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment,[28] into which the DWR were merged in 2006.[29] He has said he will not stop, and aims to do a second hundred.[9]
On reaching the £5 million mark, Moore explained his motivation:[30]
When we started off with this exercise we didn't anticipate we'd get anything near that sort of money. It's really amazing. All of them, from top to bottom, in the National Health Service, they deserve everything that we can possibly put in their place. They're all so brave. Because every morning or every night they're putting themselves into harm's way, and I think you've got to give them full marks for that effort. We're a little bit like having a war at the moment. But the doctors and the nurses, they're all on the front line, and all of us behind, we've got to supply them and keep them going with everything that they need, so that they can do their jobs even better than they're doing now.
Moore's JustGiving fundraising page is due to close at the end of his birthday, at midnight UK time, but he is encouraging people to donate to the NHS Charities Together's urgent appeal instead.[31]
Number one single
To mark Moore's 100th lap, the singer Michael Ball sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" for him live on BBC Breakfast.[32] Within 24 hours,[33] the performance was made into a digital single featuring the NHS Voices of Care Choir, and Moore's spoken words.[32] Released by Decca Records,[34] on 17 April, with all proceeds going to NHS Charities Together, the recording went straight to number one in the United Kingdom's "The Official Big Top 40" chart. It sold almost 36,000 copies in its first 48 hours,[35] and was "biggest trending song" as measured by the Official Charts Company.[34] On 24 April, it became No. 1 in the weekly "Official" UK Singles Chart, making Moore the oldest person to achieve that position and meaning that he is at No. 1 on his 100th birthday.[36]
Moore's bid to reach No. 1 was boosted when his leading competitor, the then-current No. 1, The Weeknd, used Twitter to ask people to support Moore and make him No. 1 for his 100th birthday.[37][38]
Recognition
Moore has given over 50 media interviews.[39]
On 16 April, after Moore's 100th lap, a UK Government spokesman said:[40]
The Prime Minister will certainly be looking at ways to recognise Tom's heroic efforts.
By 20 April, more than 800,000 people had signed a petition calling for Moore to be knighted.[41]
Brigadier Andrew Jackson, Colonel of the Yorkshire Regiment, described Moore as:[42]
... an absolute legend [from] an exceptional generation that are still an inspiration for our Yorkshire soldiers today.
Moore was guest of honour at, via a video link, and opened, the NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber, in Harrogate, on 21 April.[42][43]
On 23 April, he was given a Pride of Britain award in recognition of his efforts, after "thousands of nominations" were received.[44][45] He was appointed the first Honorary Colonel of the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, Yorkshire, a training centre for soldiers under 18, on his 100th birthday.[46][47] He also received the Yorkshire Regiment Medal for his "outstanding contribution to our military effectiveness and military reputation".[11]
Keighley Town Council stated that they will grant Moore the Freedom of Keighley,[48][49] and the City of London said it would also grant him their freedom.[50]
A number of artists have painted portraits of Moore; some said they would gift the paintings to him.[51] Others depicted him in murals, including examples in Cambourne,[52] Tamworth,[53] and Thetford.[54] UK television channel ITV have commissioned a 30-minute documentary, Captain Tom's War, about his military career.[55] It is scheduled to be screened on 8 May.[55]
Guinness World Records
Moore holds two Guinness World Records: as the fundraiser raising the greatest amount of money in an individual charity walk, and as the oldest person to have a number-one single on the UK charts.[56]
100th birthday
Over a week before Moore's 100th birthday, so many cards had been sent to him that Royal Mail had had to introduce dedicated sorting facilities and around 20 volunteers were recruited to open and display them, at the local Bedford School.[57][58] By his birthday over 150,000 cards had been received
Royal Mail announced that all stamped post between 26 April and 1 May will be postmarked "Happy 100th Birthday Captain Thomas Moore NHS fundraising hero 30th April 2020". Royal Mail also celebrated his birthday by painting a postbox, near his home, blue, with a golden balloon and inscription on the side
On the morning of his birthday, a Hawker Hurricane and a Spitfire from the Royal Air Force's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight performed a flypast over Moore's house.[50]
Michael Ball appeared live on BBC Breakfast to sing "Happy Birthday to You" to Moore.[50] Birthday congratulations were also made by the likes of Boris Johnson, Harry Kane and Prince Charles.[61]
Instead of the standard 100th birthday message from Queen Elizabeth II, he received a personalised card, presented in person by the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, Helen Nellis.[62]
Namesakes
The Keighley Bus Company named one of their Optare Versa buses Captain Tom Moore on 20 April, and reprogrammed the electronic displays to show a "Thank You Captain Tom" message intermittently in between the vehicle's route and destination. A plaque inside the bus gives further information of Moore's life and fundraising.[63] Other buses in the town, and across parent company Transdev Blazefield, displayed an intermittent "Thank You NHS" message. Alex Hornby, chief executive of Transdev Blazefield, described the vehicle as the "pride of the fleet" in dedication to Moore, thanking him for his fundraising efforts.[64] On 25 April, bus company Stagecoach East, which runs services in Bedford where Moore now lives, named one of their Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC double-decker buses Captain Tom Moore
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