Captain Sir Tom Moore: A hero of our time – The Yorkshire Post says

Yet it is a measure of the remarkable difference he made, and the example he set in the past year, that families around the country felt so bereft when it was announced, with such sad inevitability, that he had walked his final step and rewritten his last record.

This was reflected by the overwhelming warmth of the tributes, from the Queen to the tearful residents of his home town of Keighley, who had been touched by the sunny optimism of a celebrated centenarian and unifying hero of our time.

Heartfelt messages, which will offer lasting comfort to Captain Tom’s relatives as they, like more than 100,000 other families, come to terms with their loss, they explain why his legacy extends far beyond the £32m that he raised for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden to thank the nurses and doctors who treated him for cancer and a broken hip.

His intention was to raise £1,000 as a token gesture of goodwill ahead of his 100th birthday. Little did Captain Tom, or his family, realise the world would fall in love with this gentleman.

As he became an overnight phenomenon, he drew great strength from his own upbringing in the shadow of the First World War – and experiences fighting for his nation’s freedom in the gruesome battlefields of the Second World War. And that was the paradox. He thought he was the lucky one, enjoying such a full and varied life that he felt that he had to do his duty when cajoled by his loving family to undertake small walks in his garden to help build up his strength.

What Captain Tom probably never comprehended was the extent to which it was this country’s luck to be touched by his persistence, presence and personality when so many were struggling to make sense of the pandemic and its traumas.

Who can forget the spontaneous outpouring of his joy when he completed his walk; the special scenes when he was knighted by the Queen in the grounds of Windsor Castle or the palpable pride when he made a very special journey back to the county that made him to become Honorary Colonel of the Army Foundation College? It was difficult to know who was more honoured – Captain Tom or those who were saluting him.

A quiet Yorkshireman like no other, his personal triumph over adversity saw him become a national treasure, inspiration and hero to people of all backgrounds left in awe of the 100-year-old’s achievements, modesty, vitality, dignity, resolution and simple belief that tomorrow will be a good day.

As he said himself: “Even now when I am old and my poorly legs don’t work, and almost everyone I know has died and I can no longer talk to them about so many things, I think of myself as so very fortunate.”

And it’s our fortune that we’ll never be left to walk alone in this unforgiving struggle with Covid – Captain Sir Tom Moore’s example will be there to guide us. And we’ll always be eternally grateful to him for representing the very best of Yorkshire to the end.

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