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LONDON, February 27Britain said goodbye to Captain Tom Moore on Saturday with a nationally televised funeral for the 100-year-old war veteran who became a world hero for his extraordinary fundraising efforts during the pandemic.
The soldiers formed an honor guard at the small ceremony held by the Moore family at a crematorium in Bedford, central England.
Six soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment, the successor to the one Moore served during World War II, carried his coffin, wrapped in the Union Jack and his military cap and sword as 14 soldiers saluted firing.
Later, a WWII plane was going to make a flight.
Moore died on February 2 after being treated for pneumonia and testing positive for Covid-19.
He raised nearly £ 33 million ($ 45 million, € 37.4 million) for healthcare charities by completing 100 extensions of his garden before his 100th birthday in April of last year.
The image of the hunched but handsome veteran, leaning on his walker and rarely seen without glittering military service medals pinned to his jacket and a regimental tie, was rare good news in a bleak year.
Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in the summer of 2020.
His death was marked by national applause with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and MPs bowing their heads in parliament.
His funeral was a more private affair, reflecting the wishes of his family and the antivirus restrictions in place.
Only his two daughters Hannah Ingram-Moore and Lucy Teixeira, four grandchildren and their sons-in-law attended.
Moore’s performance of You will never Walk alone, a charity single he recorded with Michael Ball, was played at the beginning of the ceremony.
He had asked for his epitaph to be “I told you I was old”, inspired by the comedian Spike Milligan, whose tombstone reads “I told you I was sick.”
Later, his ashes would be buried in a family plot in his native Yorkshire, in the north of England, with his parents and grandparents.
The family created an online condolence book that collected thousands of messages.
Captain Sir Tom, RIP. Truly a life well lived and an inspiration to all of us, to shine a light on very dark days, “wrote Debbie Mather.
“Her courage and determination to achieve her goal and the money she raised for the NHS was incredible,” Sandra wrote. – AFP
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