WINDSOR, England (Reuters) – Queen Elizabeth knighted Captain Tom Moore on Friday, recognizing the 100-year-old for raising Britain’s spirits during the twilight of the coronavirus pandemic by raising millions of pounds for workers in health.
The World War II veteran raised a record 33 million pounds ($ 41 million) by walking 100 laps of his garden with the help of a walking frame in April in the lead up to his historic birthday.
At an open-air investiture at Windsor Castle, the 94-year-old queen smiled as she bent Moore on both shoulders with her knight sword, which previously belonged to her father, George VI.
Moore, in a dark suit, was standing clutching a wheeled walker.
“Thank you very much,” Moore said to the queen.
“Wonderful,” said the queen, before greeting the Moore family. “What an incredible amount of money you have raised.”
The Yorkshireman became a symbol of British resistance to the adversity of the coronavirus crisis and encouraged many with its promise that “the sun will shine again.”
“I could never have imagined this would happen to me,” Moore said in a message posted on Twitter before receiving the old award.
“It is a great honor and I am looking forward to meeting Her Majesty the Queen. It’s going to be the most special day for me. ”
Moore, who served in India, Burma and Sumatra during World War II, joked earlier this year that having a knighthood would be fun because it would be Sir Thomas Moore, a reference to Tudor statesman Sir Thomas More.
The monarch has taken refuge in Windsor Castle, the oldest permanently inhabited castle in the world, since March.
Other reversals have been postponed due to the coronavirus, and Moore’s knighthood was one of the first official duties the queen has performed since the coronavirus closed.
Written by Paul Sandle and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Janet Lawrence and Andrew Heavens
.
