The daughter of Captain Sir Tom Moore has told how his family are still feeling the loss of the hero war veteran ‘so keenly’ – but find comfort in continuing his ‘legacy of hope.’
Earlier this month, relatives of the hero war veteran who raised £38.9million by doing 100 laps of his garden announced plans for a fundraising event to mark his 101st birthday this weekend.
Appearing on Lorraine today, Captain Tom’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore said that while she and her children are still mourning ‘a fifth of their family’, they wish to keep his spirit alive ‘for the British people’.
She said that grief for her father often ‘comes out of nowhere’, but remembered the ‘magical’ impact he had on her two children while living with the family from the age of 87.
The daughter of Captain Sir Tom Moore said his family are still feeling the loss of the hero war veteran ‘so keenly’, but find comfort in continuing his ‘legacy of hope’. Pictured, the hero war veteran doing laps of his garden to raise money for the NHS last year
Earlier this month, relatives of the hero war veteran who raised £38.9million by doing 100 laps of his garden announced plans for a fundraising event to mark his 101st birthday this weekend. Pictured, his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore
‘I think it’s important we talk about loss, and we feel that loss so keenly like so many other people’, said Hannah, speaking from her Bedford home.
‘He was a fifth of our family and he’s just here, I open the cupboards and he’s here, his things are here and grandpa’s room is the same and it’s hard and sometimes grief gets to you, it comes from nowhere.
‘But we feel so joyful we have this powerful lasting legacy of hope that he gave to us, it’s sitting in our hands and we willingly share it. This is for us the British people, we must ensure we do everything we can that that lasting legacy of hope lives on.’
She spoke of the lessons her two children, Benji and Georgia, learned from their grandfather – and that he learned from them – insisting it was ‘powerful’ to see two generations being inspired by each other.
Appearing on Lorraine today, Hannah Ingram-Moore (pictured) said that while she and her children are still mourning ‘a fifth of their family’, they wish to keep his spirit alive ‘for the British people’
Events for Captain Tom’s 101st birthday xhallenge will take place from April 30, which would have been the Second World War veteran’s 101st birthday. He is pictured at the age of 99
‘We lived in this multi-generational family and reciprocal mentoring’, she said. ‘It just felt alive in our house, that he was able to bestow us with so much knowledge. But it was the youth teaching him too.
‘So we lived this magical – it’s hard to explain without sounding somehow like we had something more than anyone else, it wasn’t that, we lived with this reciprocal mentoring of skills.
‘It was magical to witness the children, they’re slightly different for it. They grew up in an environment where it wasn’t about them, it was about someone who had different needs to them.
‘It was powerful in that essence of sharing those skills and how extraordinary older people are.’
Pictured, then 99-year-old war veteran Captain Tom, with grandson Benji, daughter Hannah and granddaughter Georgia
Pictured, Children from Powell’s C of E Primary School in Cirencester in Gloucestershire who are backing the the ‘Captain Tom 100’ charity challenge
Events for Captain Tom’s 101st birthday challenge will take place from April 30, which would have been the Second World War veteran’s 101st birthday, over the bank holiday weekend to May 3.
The Captain Tom 100 invites people to carry out a challenge, such as climbing the stairs 100 times or baking 100 cakes and Hannah says the event was created to be ‘as inclusive as possible’.
He had discussed the initiative before his death in February from Covid-19, and his daughter recalled chatting with her dad about the event on holiday to holiday to Barbados in December last year.
‘It was amazing, we sat and as a family said what are we going to do and he was incredibly inclusive he believed in access for all, he was a massive supporter of women and girls and as he sat in his shorts and sandals and we talked about what this could be,’ she said.