You’ll never walk alone, Captain Sir Tom
Members of the Armed Forces carry the coffin of Captain Sir Tom Moore at his funeral held in Bedford Crematorium yesterday. The service for the veteran, who raised almost £33 million for the NHS last year, opened with a rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone, which Sir Tom recorded with Michael Ball and the NHS Voices of Care Choir
‘The world saw your belief in kindness and the fundamental goodness of the human spirit’
The crowds may not have been able to line the streets to bid him farewell, as they no doubt would have, but in the end Captain Sir Tom Moore did get the send off he so richly deserved.
He had after all – in the words of his daughter Lucy’s eulogy – “walked his way” into our hearts.
Inspired by the diminutive war veteran’s determination to walk 100 laps of his garden to raise money for NHS charities last year, the nation responded by donating an astonishing £32million.
And yesterday the nation said a socially distanced thank you, as
Sir Tom took his last journey from that front garden to the small family funeral allowed under pandemic restrictions.
In an event that saw the ceremonial mixed with the deeply intimate, neighbours stood in silence on their doorsteps or at their garden gates to pay their respects as the hearse carrying Sir Tom’s coffin, draped in the Union Flag, left the Bedfordshire village of Marston Moretaine.
Villagers – who maintained social distancing as the cortege went past – had earlier tied red ribbons around their lampposts in tribute to the veteran who had done so much to raise awareness of NHS charities as the health service struggled to cope with the impact of the Covid pandemic.
Children, too, said a final farewell to a 100-year-old whose infectious love of life had inspired many of them to take part in their own charity work and fundraising efforts.
Six members of the Yorkshire Regiment – whose predecessor the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment Sir Tom served with during the Second World War – acted as pall-bearers when the hearse arrived at Bedford Crematorium. As they lifted the coffin, a Second World War-era C-47 Dakota from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flew overhead to honour his service, before a party of 14 soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment each fired three rounds in unison.
On the coffin were placed a replica of his war service cap – the original lost years ago – along with a wreath from the Yorkshire Regiment, his campaign medals, including the Burma Star, and his knighthood medal stitched on to a cushion.
The service opened with the recording of Sir Tom’s number one hit You’ll Never Walk Alone, recorded with Michael Ball and the NHS Voices of Care Choir, which had seen him become the oldest person to reach the top of the UK charts.
Sir Tom’s family fought to hold back tears as his voice filled the chapel with the words of the song, followed by a recording of Dame Vera Lynn’s The White Cliffs of Dover. The service was attended by only eight members of Sir Tom’s immediate family – his two daughters Hannah Ingram-Moore and Lucy Teixeira, four grandchildren and his sons-in-law – all wearing masks.
Paying tribute to her father, who died on Feb 2 after testing positive for Covid-19, Ms Teixeira recalled the strength and determination he drew on to walk those 100 laps, little expecting that millions of pounds would be given by a public inspired by his efforts.
“Daddy, you always told us ‘best foot forward’ and true to your word that’s what you did last year, raising a fortune for the NHS and walking your way into the nation’s hearts,” she said, adding: “I am so proud of you, what you achieved your whole life and especially in the last year. You may be gone but your message and your spirit lives on.”
Ms Teixeira laughed as she remembered how her father – who after the war became managing
director of a concrete company and a champion of women in the industry – talked to her about concrete pipes to help calm her wedding-day nerves.
“We often talked about milestones in your life and laughed about the possibility of you reaching your 100th birthday,” she said. “You said ‘it’s just a number, I don’t feel any different’ and right to the end you ignored the number and kept on going, urging us all to keep on going with the mantra ‘tomorrow will be a good day’.”
Ms Teixeira had earlier said that the family aims to plant trees around the world in Sir Tom’s memory, including a wood in his home county of Yorkshire and reforestation of a part of India, where he served during the Second World War. “He was very clear in his wishes and if he could have been put into a cardboard box, he would have done that, rather than chop down a tree,” she said.
The family has also set up an online book of condolence and those who wish to can donate through the Captain Tom Foundation, plant a tree or donate to a charity of their choice.
In one of the highlights of the service a special recording by Michael Bublé of the song Smile was played, before Sir Tom’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore, 52, paid her own moving tribute.
“We are so proud of the way you handled everything that happened, we had been so close as a family before this but we were thrust even closer together as the world became enthralled by your spirit of hope, positivity and resilience,” she said. “They, too, saw your belief in kindness and the fundamental goodness of the human spirit.”
After the committal, Frank Sinatra’s My Way filled the chapel – the song picked by Sir Tom, who also chose his characteristically humorous epitaph: “I told you I was old,” in reference to the comic Spike Milligan’s: “I told you I was ill”.
At the end of the service, Alex Browne, from the Yorkshire Regiment, played Last Post. This was followed by a minute’s silence before the 24-year-old sounded Reveille.
Around the country veterans joined members of the public in pausing to pay tribute to Sir Tom and others paid their own tributes on social media, including MP Johnny Mercer, a former British Army officer, who wrote: “The perfect veteran. Always humble; never entitled. Always using his experiences to help others.”
The service closed in a way that he would surely have appreciated, with Lieutenant Tim Exton, commander 1st Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment, reciting John Maxwell Edmonds’ famous epitaph for the fallen: “When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”