Captaintom
Captain Sir Thomas Moore (born 30 April 1920), popularly known as “Captain Tom”, is a former British Army officer and centenarian, known for his achievements raising money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moore served in India, the Burma campaign, and Sumatra during the Second World War, and 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 laps of his garden in aid of NHS Charities Together, with the goal of raising £1,000 by his hundredth birthday. In the 24-day course of his fundraising he made many media appearances and became a popular household name in the United Kingdom, generating much interest in his life story, earning a number of accolades and attracting over 1.5 million individual donations. 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.
On the morning of his hundredth birthday the total raised by his walk passed £30 million, and by the time the campaign closed at the end of that day had increased to over £32.79 million. His birthday was marked in a number of ways, including flypasts by the Royal Air Force and the British Army. He received over 150,000 cards, and was appointed as honorary colonel of the Army Foundation College. His knighthood was announced on 19 May, and conferred the next day. His investiture took place on 17 July 2020, at Windsor Castle.
Moore was born at Keighley, West Yorkshire, on 30 April 1920 and grew up in the town. His father, Wilfred, was one of a family of builders, his mother was a head teacher. Moore was educated at Keighley Grammar School and started an apprenticeship in civil engineering.
Moore was conscripted in the 8th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment (8 DWR) in 1940, stationed in Cornwall, shortly after the beginning of the Second World War. He was selected for officer training later that year, and attended an Officer Cadet Training Unit before being commissioned as a second lieutenant on 28 June 1941.
On 22 October 1941, Moore became a member of the Royal Armoured Corps. This was because 8 DWR became an armoured unit designated as the 145th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps. Later that year, he was transferred to the 9th Battalion (9 DWR) in India, which had also been redesignated as the 146th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps. While in India he was tasked with setting up and running a training programme for army motorcyclists. He was initially posted to Bombay[9] (now Mumbai) and subsequently to Calcutta (now Kolkata).
He was promoted to war-substantive lieutenant on 1 October 1942 and to temporary captain on 11 October 1944.
As part of the Fourteenth Army, the so-called "Forgotten Army", he served in Arakan in western Burma (now Myanmar) — where he survived Dengue fever — and afterward in Sumatra after the Japanese surrender by which time he had risen to the rank of Captain. His regiment were equipped with M3 Lee tanks and participated in the Battle of Ramree Island in January–February 1945.
On his return to Britain he served as an instructor at the Armoured Fighting Vehicle School at Bovington Camp, Dorset.
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