FUNDRAISER extraordinaire Captain Tom Moore celebrates his 100th birthday today. Many happy returns sir, you’ve earned the right to a very special day and I hope you get spoilt rotten.
Captain Moore served in the Second World War and was stationed in the Far East where he saw action in the Burma campaign against the Japanese. He was awarded the Burma Star amongst other wartime honours.
Like so many men of his generation, he settled back into civilian life, raised a family and faded into relative obscurity for the next 75 years.
But then he decided to go for a walk in his garden and his life was turned upside down.
What started as a simple task of doing 100 laps before his 100th birthday to raise £1,000 for the NHS became a global phenomenon when he eventually raised nearly £30million.
Not only that, he is now number one in the charts with a horrendous duet with Michael Ball singing You’ll Never walk Alone. Whatever else Captain Tom is, he certainly isn’t a singer.
Meanwhile a nationwide campaign has been launched to get him a knighthood.
These are strange times indeed and this is perhaps one of the strangest of all.
People who would normally walk straight past Captain Moore if he was out in his military garb collecting money for veterans are now throwing cash at him because it’s for the NHS.
Despite serving with distinction in the Second World War, only now is he viewed as a hero because of his epic voyage round the garden.
In America, military veterans and serving personnel are treated with the utmost respect, often with the saccharine sweetness that only Americans can do.
But here, our veterans and serving personnel are not treated with anything like that reverence and the further away we move from the Second World War the public respect dwindles ever further.
Nowadays, the majority of the public only view heroes as ones who wear surgical gear or a football shirt.
Doctors and nurses are doing an excellent job during the current crisis but so are social care staff, supermarket workers, lorry drivers and everyone else who is carrying on working.
But would people pledge £30m to an old army veteran walking round his garden if he was raising money for a military charity or a lorry drivers’ benevolent fund?
The answer should make us all think twice.
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