Captain Tom Moore, who raised millions for a British charity supporting the National Health Service by walking laps of his garden ahead of his 100th birthday, was honored at a funeral on Saturday. Veteran Moore received a firing salute from 14 soldiers of the Yorkshire Regiment and a fly past from a World War II-era plane.
His Union Flag-draped coffin was carried by soldiers from the regiment into the crematorium in Bedford, eastern England, past empty pews due to coronavirus restrictions. The soldiers then marched out and left his close family for the service, to the sound of Moore singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" in a charity single he recorded with Michael Ball.
In line with current coronavirus restrictions, the funeral was attended by his immediate family -- two daughters, Lucy Teixeira and Hannah Ingram-Moore, four grandchildren and his sons-in-laws. "Daddy, I am so proud of you," Teixeira said, "What you achieved your whole life and especially in the last year. You may be gone but your message and your spirit lives on."
Lucy said her father would be watching them at the funeral and chuckling "saying 'don't be too sad as something has to get you in the end.'" Speaking of her grief, Ingram-Moore said "we have lost a huge part of our family" and "we feel your loss with a deafening silence." But she added "the power of the love you left allows us to stay strong."
Alfie Boe's performance of "I Vow To Thee My Country" and Dame Vera Lynn's "The White Cliffs Of Dover" were played at the moving ceremony. Once Covid-19 restrictions permit, the family will intern Moore's ashes in Yorkshire, where he will rest with his parents and grandparents in the Moore family plot. He died in hospital on February 2 after testing positive for Covid-19.
Known affectionately as Captain Tom, Moore raised almost £33 million ($45 million) by walking laps of his garden last year. His exploits united a country frozen in lockdown and made him an unlikely celebrity late in his life, earning him a military promotion, a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II and a number-one single.
Moore's fundraising efforts will long be associated with the UK's plunge into lockdown last spring, and his death made him one of the highest-profile victims of a virus that has claimed the lives of more than 120,000 Britons.
People from 163 countries around the world donated to Captain Tom Moore's fundraiser, the celebrant conducting the funeral said. She added that they were investing "in the values that he stood for."
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