Honours list should exist for true heroes just like Sir Tom
NO knighthood has ever been more fully deserved or more eagerly acclaimed than Captain Tom Moore’s. His is an exceptional award, detached from the usual honours lists to mark the Queen’s birthday and New Year. But then Sir Tom is an exceptional man. In the darkness of the coronavirus crisis, the tireless military veteran has been a shining beacon of hope and resilience.
Over the years, many titles have been shrouded in controversy, particularly where politics or corporate interests are involved.
But Sir Tom’s is on an entirely different plane. He is exactly the kind of selfless hero for whom the honours system was designed. People of every class and creed, of every region and race can delight at his recognition. With his incredible fundraising efforts for the NHS, he has touched the nation’s hearts.
During his magnificent crusade that has brought in almost £33million, he has been showered with accolades. Trains, boats and buses have been named after him. He has been granted the freedoms of Keighley, his Yorkshire birthplace, and the City of London.
He reached Number One in the pop music charts, the oldest person ever to do so. On his 100th birthday last month, he not only received a personal card from the Queen, but was also made an honorary colonel of the Yorkshire Regiment.
BORIS Johnson describes him as “a national treasure”. The Guinness Book of Records calls him the greatest individual fundraiser in the history of charity walks.
But this week’s knighthood is perhaps the most important tribute he has received.The title is entirely appropriate because, as a true English gentleman, he exudes the timeless virtue of chivalry. It is his character, mixing deep compassion with his Yorkshire grit, that helps to explain why he strikes such a chord with the British public.
Throughout his journey into stardom, he has maintained his fundamental decency and dedication. The phenomenal global interest, reflected in more than 150 media interviews and the arrival of more than 160,000 birthday cards, has been accepted with grace.
His innate, good-humoured modesty is in dramatic contrast to the behaviour of so many attention-seeking modern celebrities, with all their narcissism and neuroses.
It is typical of him that he should choose to fundraise for the NHS. Having endured skin cancer and a bad fall that left him with a broken hip, fractured rib and a punctured lung, he was determined to express his thanks to the staff who nursed him back to health.
In the process, he became a channel for the wider public to show its profound gratitude to the NHS during the pandemic.
That kind of respect for service has been integral to his life.
At just 20, he was called up to the Army during the Second World War, serving first as an engineer in India, then as a dispatch rider in the vicious Burma campaign against Japan. Operating on the front line with the Royal Armoured Corps in hostile terrain was a life-threatening experience.
“We all battled together. We were under fire constantly,” he recalls. But even in the toughest fights, he remained undaunted.
Once the war ended, he embarked on a career as a manager in the concrete industry.
Again his decency shone through. “Tom led a very happy and successful team. He was a really lovely man, always forward-thinking and very modest,” recalled a colleague.
Tom Moore also found fulfilment in his personal life. Approaching the age of 50, having “almost given up on love”, he met his wife Pamela.
Married in 1968, they had two daughters. Sadly she died in 2006, but his devotion to her memory was obvious in TV interviews he gave yesterday. And the tender importance he attaches to his family is shown in his closeness to his children and grandchildren.
Now in his second century, Sir Tom has led a long, honourable life. But the past two months have surely been the most remarkable he has experienced.
HIS amazing deeds are the ultimate proof that no one is too old to contribute, that maturity should be cherished, that joyous success can be achieved at any age.
In the jungles of Burma more than 75 years ago, young Tom attended a Vera Lynn concert, falling under the spell of her voice and charisma. Now he joins her both as an ennobled centenarian and a national icon.
As he reflects on his elevation in the present crisis, he remains a source of optimism. “I’ve never despaired, even in wartime. I’ve always known that things would get better.”
‘As a true English gentleman, he exudes timeless virtue of chivalry’