Arise, Sir Tom
Monarch and centenarian former soldier from Keighley chat and she thanks him for fundraising endeavour
CAPTAIN SIR Tom Moore was personally thanked by the Queen for raising an “amazing amount of money” for the NHS as she knighted him for his efforts.
The Yorkshire-born Second World War veteran appeared humbled following his audience with the monarch and said he was “absolutely overawed” to receive the knighthood at Windsor Castle yesterday.
The Queen praised the centenarian for raising almost £33m by completing 100 laps of his garden.
SOCIALLY DISTANCED by the length of a sword, the Queen bestowed a knighthood yesterday on the war veteran who captured the hearts of a nation in lockdown.
Captain Sir Tom Moore, the old soldier from Keighley whose laps of his back garden raised nearly £33m for the NHS in April, also received the personal thanks of the Sovereign for his efforts. “Thank you so much – an amazing amount of money you raised,” she was heard to say.
Under brilliant sunshine in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle, it was an investiture like no other.
The Queen had been shielding there with the Duke of Edinburgh, and the arrival of Sir Tom with his family marked her first encounter with a member of the public since the quarantine began.
Her arrival was heralded by the sound of bagpipes played by the Queen’s Piper, Pipe Major Richard Grisdale, of The Royal Regiment of Scotland. She was joined in the quadrangle by the Master of the Household, retired Vice Admiral Tony JohnstoneBurt, who carried the insignia of Knight Bachelor, while a page was entrusted with King George VI’s sword used in the ceremony.
Taking it in her right hand, the Queen placed it lightly on
Sir Tom Moore, formerly Captain Tom Moore, after his knighthood.
Sir Tom’s right shoulder, then his left. His daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, son-in-law Colin Ingram, grandson Benjie and granddaughter Georgia watched.
“I’m absolutely overwhelmed,” Sir Tom had sent as he set off for Windsor. “It isn’t everybody who gets a chance to see the Queen, is it?”
Asked if he was worried at the prospect of kneeling before the Sovereign, some two-and-a-half months after turning 100, he replied: “If I kneel down I’ll never get up again.”
As it was, he remained standing, with his walking frame for support, while the Queen, six years his junior, rose from her crimson chair and took nine steps towards him.
A few moments of conversation on the lawn followed the brief ceremony, and the Queen was overheard asking Sir
Tom: “Have you been shut up – been isolating?”
She then imparted the day’s other news from Windsor, as if he were an old family friend.
“My granddaughter got married this morning. Both Philip and I managed to get there – very nice.” Sir Tom had set out to raise £1,000 by walking 100 laps of his garden in the village of Marston Moretaine, in Bedfordshire, before he turned 100. But his efforts struck a chord with the national mood, and donations flooded in, with the Prime Minister praising him for having “provided us all with a beacon of light through the fog of coronavirus” and recommending that he be knighted.
After the ceremony Sir Tom took a refreshment break inside the castle and returned to the quadrangle with renewed vigour.
“I am absolutely overawed. This is such a high award and to get it from Her Majesty as well – what more can anyone wish for? This has been an absolutely magnificent day for me,” he said.
What was better, raising the money or causing the Queen to “break her lockdown”, he was asked. “You’ve only one Queen,” he said. “There’s no value that can be placed on that.”
This has been an absolutely magnificent day for me.