Tom Moore, a century-old veteran who accomplished the feat of collecting some £ 33 million (36.2 million euros) for the British health service in the midst of a pandemic, was knighted Friday by Queen Elizabeth II during ” an exceptional ceremony at Windsor Castle.
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While all the investitures to be held in June and July at Buckingham Palace in London have been postponed due to the new coronavirus, an exception has been made for “Captain Tom”, who captured the hearts of the British.
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Surrounded by his family, he was raised to the rank of knight in the imposing courtyard of Windsor Castle by the Queen, who used the sword that belonged to her father, King George VI, and in accordance with the rules of social distancing.
It was the first royal face-to-face engagement with a member of the public for Elizabeth II since she retired on March 19 to Windsor Castle with her husband, Prince Philip, due to the pandemic.
“Captain Tom”, who participated in the Second World War, had collected the unprecedented sum of 33 million pounds – approved by the Guinness Academy – by taking small steps, equipped with his walker, 100 laps of his garden of the Bedfordshire before his hundredth birthday, April 30.
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Just over three weeks earlier, he had taken up the challenge of obtaining 1,000 pounds for associations linked to the public health service, the NHS, on the front line in the fight against the new coronavirus.
The story of this veteran and the influx of donations he has generated have warmed the hearts of the public in the United Kingdom, the European country most grieving by the Sars COV-2 with more than 45,000 deaths.
Appointed Honorary Colonel on the Occasion of his Hundredth Anniversary, which had taken the form of a national celebration, Tom Moore “inspired the whole country and brought us all a light in the midst of the fog of the coronavirus”, declared the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose management of the crisis is criticized.
Calling Tom Moore a “national treasure”, the Conservative leader had personally asked the Queen to have the centenary knighted.
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