From Captain to Colonel to Sir Tom: A knighthood for 100-year-old fundraising hero
Colonel Tom Moore, the centenarian from Bedfordshire who single-handedly raised £33m for NHS charities, is to be knighted by the Queen.
Click below to watch our report from Rebecca Haworth
Colonel Tom Moore, the centenarian from Bedfordshire who single-handedly raised £33m for NHS charities, is to be knighted by the Queen.
At the age of 99 and then a retired army Captain, Tom wanted to raise £1,000 for NHS charities by doing 100 laps of garden in Marston Moretaine near Bedford using is walking frame.
His fundraising efforts captured the hearts of the nation and the world and he became a media darling as his charity cash total raced upwards at the rate of hundreds of thousands of pounds an hour.
It eventually totted up to £32,796,485 from more than 1½ million donors.
In recognition of his efforts, Captain Tom was promoted to honorary colonel of Army Foundation College in Harrogate by his old army unit, the Yorkshire Regiment.
He who was born in Keighley, served with the 8th Battalion The Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment, which is now part of The Yorkshire Regiment.
The Second World War veteran first appeared on ITV News Anglia at the beginning of April with a very modest fundraising target.
He celebrated his 100th birthday last month when his received 150,000 birthday cards.
He also released a charity single, You'll Never Walk Alone, with singer Michael Ball, which reached number one in the charts, making him the oldest artist ever to have a UK number one single.
Now the Prime Minister has recommended to the Queen that Colonel Tom be exceptionally honoured with a knighthood.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer congratulated Sir Tom who he said had brought "inspiration to millions and helped all of us to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of our NHS".
He added: "In his actions, Tom embodied the national solidarity which hasgrown throughout this crisis, and showed us that everyone can play their part in helping build a better future."
Colonel Tom and now Sir Tom, has already had various honours heaped upon him:
He remotely opened Harrogate's Nightingale Hospital
Promoted to Honorary Colonel of the Army Foundation College
A personal letter of thanks from the Royal family
We was given the Freedom of the City of London
He had a birthday RAF flypast by a Spitfire and Hurricane
He became the oldest person to have a number one record in the charts
He had a GWR train named after him
The Post Office gave him a postmark and his village a blue pillar box
His local hospital named a garden in his honour
A gold Blue Peter badge even came his way
Colonel Tom’s honour is due to be formally announced on Wednesday when the Government will also give more details on plans to honour frontline staff, who have been fighting coronavirus across the country.
A government spokesman said: “We know there is huge appetite to say thank you to all those supporting the nation during this emergency and doing incredible things day in, day out, up and down the country.
“We will ensure these unsung heroes are recognised in the right way, at the right time.”
The stamps on Colonel Tom's 150,000 birthday cards filled 60 black bags and weighed 30kg. They were expected to raise £600 for charity.
150 members of the Bedford School community spent 1,750 hours helping to open the cards and display them in the school hall on 200 metres of ribbon.
The cards contained £60,000 to add to the charity total.
Sir Tom is due to publish two books later this year as he launches a new charitable foundation.
Sir Tom enlisted into the eighth battalion of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (8 DWR), an infantry unit that was converted to operate Churchill tanks as part of the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC).
In 1940 he was selected for officer training and rose to the rank of captain,later being posted to 9 DWR in India.
He served and fought in the Arakan in western Burma, since renamed Rakhine State, and went with his regiment to Sumatra after the Japanese surrender.
After the war he returned to the UK and worked as an instructor at the Armoured Fighting Vehicle School in Bovington, Dorset.
He lived in Kent for many years before moving to Bedfordshire to be with hisfamily in 2007.