Captain Sir Tom Moore‘s daughter today revealed the family received a ‘lovely letter for the Queen’ following his death, adding that the monarch felt ‘genuine loss’.
Hannah Ingram-Moore said the Queen and her 100-year-old father, who raised nearly £33million for NHS charities by walking laps of his garden, were ‘two similar souls’.
She joked that he and the Queen would have probably ‘gone off for a cup of tea and had a good chin wag’ after he was knighted last year, if it wasn’t for the pandemic.
Captain Tom, who lived with Mrs Ingram-Moore and her family, died surrounded by his family at Bedford Hospital on February 2 after losing an 11-day battle with Covid.
Buckingham Palace paid a personal tribute, with a spokesman saying the Queen’s thoughts were with his family – and the flag at Number 10 was lowered to half-mast.
Mrs Ingram-Moore joked on BBC Breakfast that her father and the Queen would have probably ‘gone off a cup of tea’ after he was knighted last year, if it wasn’t for the pandemic
Captain Sir Tom Moore is knighted by the Queen at Windsor Castle on July 17 last year
The Second World War veteran, of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, was knighted by the 94-year-old Queen in a unique outdoor ceremony at Windsor Castle on July 17.
And Mrs Ingram Moore told BBC Breakfast today: ‘I’ve joked with my friends and said, honestly, if it wasn’t Covid I think they’d have gone off a cup of tea and had a good chin wag into the afternoon, because it was two similar souls.
‘And I think she felt genuine loss. We had a lovely letter from her and I think that she feels genuine loss – it’s another one of her generation, isn’t it.’
As well as being knighted, Captain Tom was made an honorary colonel and an honorary member of the England cricket team.
The Queen talks to Captain Sir Tom Moore and his family after he was knighted last July
Captain Sir Tom Moore is pictured after receiving his knighthood at Windsor Castle last July
Captain Sir Tom Moore and his daughter Mrs Ingram-Moore at home in Bedfordshire last April
Speaking after his death, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: ‘The Queen is sending a private message of condolence to the family of Captain Sir Tom Moore.
‘Her Majesty very much enjoyed meeting Captain Sir Tom and his family at Windsor last year.
‘Her thoughts, and those of the Royal Family, are with them, recognising the inspiration he provided for the whole nation and others across the world.’
Meanwhile, Mrs Ingram-Moore also said today how Captain Tom’s heart would have been ‘broken’ to hear about trolling the family received.
Speaking about her father’s days in hospital and their final family holiday to the Caribbean, she said she could not tell her father ‘people are hating us’ after his mammoth fundraising efforts.
She told BBC Breakfast: ‘I couldn’t tell him. I think it would have broken his heart, honestly, if we’d said to him people are hating us.
‘Because how do you rationalise to a 100-year-old man that something so incredibly good can attract such horror?
‘So we contained it within the four of us and we said we wouldn’t play to … that vile minority, we wouldn’t play to them, we’re not, because we are talking to the massive majority of people who we connect with.’
Mrs Ingram-Moore also said her father had wanted to come home to steak and chips after he was admitted to hospital with coronavirus.
She said: ‘I said to him in the last few days: ‘So, what do you want to eat when you come home?’ And we decided it was steak and chips.
‘He was really excited about coming out for steak and chips and getting his frame back outside and his walker.
‘The last real conversation was positive and about carrying on, and that’s a lovely place to be.’
Mrs Ingram-Moore said that when Captain Tom went into hospital, the family ‘really all believed he’d come back out’.
‘We thought the oxygen would help, that he would be robust enough, (but) the truth is he just wasn’t. He was old and he just couldn’t fight it,’ she added.
Before he died, the centenarian got to tick a holiday in the Caribbean off his bucket list when the family travelled to Barbados just before Christmas.
‘It was just amazing,’ Mrs Ingram-Moore said.
‘He sat in 29 degrees outside, he read two novels, he read the newspapers every day, and we sat and we talked as a family, we went to restaurants (because we could there) and he ate fish on the beach and what a wonderful thing to do.
‘I think we were all so pleased we managed to give him that.’