HOW CAPTAIN TOM CAPTURED MY ART
Royal artist presents portrait to NHS hero and launches £25k competition to raise even more money
AS one of the country’s foremost portrait artists, Darren Baker doesn’t do nerves. After all, he spent hours in close confines with The Queen when he was commissioned to do her portrait and he has also painted Prince Charles and Zara Phillips.
But nothing could have prepared Darren for the moment he met a man who has become a modern-day addition to British royalty – Captain Tom Moore.
“I was waiting nervously behind the door and when I saw his trademark walking frame, that’s when it really hit me. He was probably the most famous man in the world at that time I met him,” says the artist who presented the veteran with a portrait he did of him on his 100th birthday in April.
Darren, 44, wanted to recognise the Herculean achievement of the retired British Army captain who raised more than £32million for NHS charities by setting out to complete 100 laps of his garden ahead of reaching his centenary.
“Thanks to his extraordinary efforts to raise money for the NHS, Captain Tom has stolen the nation’s heart, become a number one pop star and earned himself a well-deserved RAF flypast, “Darren says.
“I was bowled over when I met him. He beamed his lovely wide smile and his eyes lit up when I showed him the portrait.
“He absolutely loved it and I had an extra copy of the print that he signed to my eight-year-old daughter Lily too.
“He was remarkable for someone of 100. He had a very soft, kind and humble voice, he was completely on the ball and he had a real spark in his eyes.”
When Darren heard about the challenge Captain Tom had set himself, he decided to paint a pastel portrait in his honour.
“I chose a red background because of the link to the red poppies that grew where many of the battles were fought in the war and because the red poppy represents remembrance and hope,” says Darren, who like his hero was born in Yorkshire.
BUT little did he know that he would actually get to meet Captain Tom who not only received an honorary promotion to colonel, but discovered he was to be knighted last month, in an almost unheard of one-off announcement by Buckingham Palace.
Despite using a walking frame and having had treatment for cancer and a broken hip, the war veteran was on fine form when Darren was invited to meet him at his daughter’s home in Bedfordshire.
“I thought I was going to have to stand on the doorstep to give him his portrait but I was invited into his living room,” he recalls.
The artist was so inspired by Captain Tom’s fundraising to help the health service fight the coronavirus pandemic that he has teamed up with the Professional Footballers Association to launch a contest to raise money for the NHS workers.
“I was so privileged that I got the chance to meet him,” Darren said. “He’s since encouraged and inspired me to raise money for NHS Together.” Darren’s sister Leanne
Baker took her own life seven years ago and the artist is repaying the kindness and help he received from NHS counselling and therapy services to help him deal with the tragedy by launching ‘Art4NHS’ competition to raise money for frontline charities like NHS Charities Together and The Prince’s Trust.
Having known Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, for more than 20 years, Darren has secured £25,000 and other individual prizes for winners, which include match-day tickets for next season and football shirts.
To enter the competition, children and adults are encouraged to submit paintings and drawings on the theme of the NHS and community spirit and on June 14, three winners will be selected from each of the four age groups (five to eight, nine to 12, 13-17, 18+).
Darren hopes Captain Tom will join the existing judging panel which comprises Manchester United’s Juan Mata and eminent artists Ian Berry and Lauren Baker.
“Tom loved the artwork I did for him. He’d be a great judge, so I’m planning to ask him and I know he’ll select the most deserving entries.” When the two men met, talk turned inevitably to their beloved home county.
“We spoke about growing up in Yorkshire at great length,” says Darren. “Sir Tom recalled how the shire horses would pull the canal barges in Bingley in the ’20s.”
“That’s how old I am!,” the veteran, who was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire in 1920, told Darren.
“He has a very distinct Yorkshire accent and I started talking in dialect, saying, ‘Site over yonder’, and he responded saying, ‘Tha’s a proper Yorkshireman’.
“He loves the tradition of the county and that four different regions have four distinct dialects too.
“I gave him a sketch of Keighley where he grew up. He was over the moon and he reminisced about his favourite parts of Yorkshire from Betty’s Tea Rooms to Headingley cricket ground in Leeds.
“I invited him to Huddersfield, where I live, to see all the wonderful scenery and to try the fantastic fish and chips at Compo’s restaurant in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire.”
The men also bonded over their respect for
‘I was bowled over when I met him… His eyes lit up when I showed him the portrait. He absolutely loved it’
the Royal Family. “I told him I had previously painted portraits of the Queen for The Royal British Legion and Prince Charles and his admiration for the sovereign and the military was very clear. “Tom was delighted and he looked really animated and he told me, ‘You cannot get better than The Queen, she is absolutely wonderful’.
“You could really see his affection and admiration for Her Majesty. He said what an
honour it was to paint her and I agreed and I said, ‘It was the greatest honour of my life along with now meeting you, Sir.’
“He couldn’t believe how many hundreds of thousands of people, including the Queen, had sent him birthday cards on the big day. I even joked that the Queen might personally deliver his telegram.”
During Darren’s hour-long chat with Captain Tom, which was filmed by ITV, the veteran told him about his life and the joy of VE Day. Tom attended Keighley Grammar School before completing an apprenticeship as a civil engineer.
He enlisted into the eight 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 a 9 DWR in India.
He served and fought in India and Burma and went with his regiment to Sumatra after the Japanese surrender in 1945.
“He told me about his time in Burma in the Second World War and how he had survived it,” Darren recalls.
“I realised what tough times he had been through but it struck me how much mental strength he had.”
TOM returned to Britain and worked as an instructor at the Armoured Fighting Vehicle school in Bovington, Dorset. “He mentioned his old regiment in Yorkshire and many friends he made.
“He also spoke a lot about VE Day 80 years ago and what a joyous event it was. You could see how this cemented his positive mindset and how this would be such a celebration after long dark days. He said they partied into the night and there was much dancing, drinking and rejoicing.
“Never has a knighthood been more thoroughly deserved and everyone in the country would wish him this honour. He is a shining inspiration to everyone.”
On receiving the news, the war veteran joked that he may have to “issue tickets” for those who wish to accompany him to Buckingham Palace for the ceremony.
Darren says his ultimate aim is to get Sir Tom and The Queen together.
“I have asked the family if I could paint this moment of two beloved national institutions together, “he says. “The crowning glory of this wonderful man’s achievement.
“I went to Buckingham Palace to paint the Queen in 2011 and had two sittings with her and now it would be great to paint ‘The King’ and Queen together. That would be a very special moment.”
For now, invoking the positivity and optimism which served him so well at the end of the war, Sir Tom gave Darren a message of hope for the British people as we emerge from the pain and difficulties of the coronavirus lockdown.
“He kept telling me how much he believed ‘Tomorrow will be a good day’ and that we will get through the coronavirus and come out stronger, more united and ready to face any challenge together.”