Captain Tom Moore won hearts around the nation after deciding, aged 99, to walk 100 laps of his garden to help the NHS.

After raising tens of millions of pounds, he's now shared details of his heroic stint fighting in Burma during WWII. 

In an ITV show called Captain Tom's War screening at 8pm this evening, he talks about being conscripted into the Duke of Wellington's Regiment and then posted to India the next year.

He said: "Being conscripted didn't do me any harm at all. The reason for conscription was that the country had got desperately short of soldiers. 

"It was an entirely different world to anything I'd ever been in before but we survived."

Here's your guide to the remarkable life story of a new national hero. 

Who is Captain Tom?

Capt Moore was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, on April 30 1920.

He attended Keighley Grammar School and later completed an apprenticeship as a civil engineer before joining the Army.

He enlisted into the eighth battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (8 DWR), an infantry unit that was converted to operate Churchill tanks as part of the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC).

In 1940, he was selected for officer training and rose to the rank of captain, later being posted to 9 DWR in India.

He served and fought in the Arakan in western Burma, since renamed Rakhine State, and went with his regiment to Sumatra after the Japanese surrender.

After the war, he returned to the UK and worked as an instructor at the Armoured Fighting Vehicle School in Bovington, Dorset.

He lived in Kent for many years before moving to Bedfordshire to be with his family in 2007.

Capt Moore suffered a broken hip in 2018 and also required treatment for skin cancer of the head.

His family said this inspired him to do something to help the NHS, and he decided to walk 100 laps of his garden in Marston Moretaine before his 100th birthday to raise funds.

Capt Moore started his challenge in early April with the initial target of raising £1,000 for NHS Charities Together.

Ten days later, assisted by his walking frame, he had completed 100 laps and raised more than £20 million.

“It really is absolutely enormous isn’t it,” he said.

“That sum of money is very difficult to imagine but it’s coming in so well.”

He vowed to keep on walking laps of the 25-metre circuit for as long as donations continue to pour in, and his family said they would support him to keep doing this, with his fundraising total now approaching £30 million.

A long list of celebrities have praised Capt Moore’s efforts, including David Walliams, Sir Mo Farah, Lewis Hamilton and Gary Lineker, along with politicians and royals including Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the Duke of Sussex.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was looking at ways to recognise Capt Moore’s “heroic efforts”, the Duke of Cambridge praised him as a “one-man fundraising machine” and he released a charity single.

His cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone, together with singer Michael Ball, reached number one in the charts, making him the oldest artist ever to have a UK number one single.

Capt Moore was the guest of honour at the opening of the NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber in Harrogate, set up to help with increased numbers of hospital admissions during the pandemic, and he appeared by video link.

So many people sent him cards to mark his hundredth birthday on Thursday that a dedicated sorting office was set up at his grandson’s school, with more than 125,000 cards received.

VE Day celebrations

Captain Tom Moore’s local pub will be kicking off a nationwide toast to veterans on Friday, to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

The 100-year-old Second World War veteran has captured the hearts of the nation and raised more than £32 million for the NHS.

At 3pm on Friday, publicans up and down the country will ring their pub bells and raise a glass in honour of war veterans – with Captain Tom’s local in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, kicking things off.

Publican Karl Clark, who runs The Bell in the village, said: “Captain Tom has become a national hero for his recent sponsored walk but we want to make sure we also recognise his achievements during WWII and raise a glass to him and his fellow veterans.”

The British Beer & Pub Association has called on its members, who represent more than 20,000 pubs and 90% of the beer brewed in Britain, to join the celebrations virtually.

It comes at a time when the nationwide shutdown of pubs to prevent the spread of Covid-19 has severely hampered the ability of pubs to play their traditional leading role as community hubs.

Despite the challenges, publicans across the country are determined to show their support and enable their local communities to find other ways to commemorate VE Day.

Publican Mark Dawson, from The Ship in Langstone, Portsmouth, will be delivering bottles of beer to his neighbours so they can still enjoy a toast from their driveways.

He said: “We couldn’t let this historic day pass without acknowledgement.

“Just like we clap for today’s heroes every Thursday, it’s vital we recognise the heroes of our history. Even though our original plans aren’t possible now, this will be our way of raising a glass and saying thank you to our veterans.”

John Locke, landlord of The Two Tubs in Bury, said he will not be deterred by the lockdown and plans to lead a socially-distanced toast with Old Fusilier groups outside his pub.

He said: “As our pub is heavily associated with the local Lancashire Fusiliers, we feel it’s our duty to honour war veterans.

“While the lockdown can physically keep us apart, we can still find a safe way to honour war heroes of the past. Even our local MP, James Daly, will be joining the celebrations to give it a real sense of occasion.”