Captain Sir Tom Moore is everyone’s hero but as a Yorkshireman, we claim him as our own. As a fund-raising drive is launched to mark what would have been his 101st birthday at the end of April, his daughter Hannah tells Yorkshire Life about her father’s favourite places in the county.
‘The little boy from Yorkshire was in the man you all saw’, says Hannah Ingram-Moore as she talks about her much-loved father, Captain Sir Tom Moore.
His youthful, generous spirit captivated the nation as he raised millions for the NHS – and it was a spirit shaped in Yorkshire, where he grew up as a child in Keighley with a family in the building trade. That family heritage was always a pull when he visited, says Hannah and he was delighted to be granted the Freedom of Keighley on his 100th birthday.
SUBSCRIBE: Discover the best of Yorkshire, news, people and places
‘The Moore family built the war memorial in Ilkley’, says Hannah when she recalls some of her father’s favourite Yorkshire places.
Others were Riddlesden with its canal, the town of Haworth – and the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway where scenes from The Railway Children were filmed.
‘He brought to life the stories of the Bronte sisters and the Railway Children, she says.
‘As a child coming from south east England (where the family moved), to Yorkshire and being exposed to this other side of life was extraordinary’, she says.
‘He felt so proud to take us back – for 65 years he would attend his regimental reunion in Leeds and for 17 of those I went with him. It was a different slice of his life.’
GALLERY: Stunning Yorkshire Dales in pictures
He loved showing his young family the landscape of his beloved Yorkshire, such as the wilderness of Park Rash, the steep climb in the Yorkshire Dales, north of Kettlewell towards Coverdale.
And he would watch his Uncle Billy drive through the Dob Park water splash near Otley.
He’d love to play in Cliffe Castle Park in Keighley and enjoy a ramble over Denton Moor in Ilkley.
These special places now have a huge pull for Capt Sir Tom’s grandchildren who have visited Yorkshire and learned a love of the county from their grandfather.
‘We made a magical multi-generational family’, says Hannah.
'It is so true that the old give to the young and the young give to the old – all benefit. Allow older people their voice as they have lots to offer.
Hannah hopes the people of Yorkshire will get on board with the Captain Tom 100, a fund-raiser he was involved before his death earlier this year – to recognise what would have been his 101st birthday on April 30.
The idea is that people raise money for charities of their choice by doing something to mark the number 100.
All you need to do is dream up a challenge based around the number 100, and do it between Friday, April 30 and Monday, May 3
You could walk 100 laps of your garden just like Captain Tom, swim 100 lengths or sing for 100 minutes. There are no rules (apart from Government guidelines on the roadmap out of lockdown) and it's open to everyone. Do it your way and have fun!
As Hannah says: ‘He was sure it should be 100 not 101 and that it should be inclusive – baking 100 cakes, doing 100 wave jumps – that there should be joy and fun around it.
‘He fully intended and expected to be there and would have loved to have been part of it.’
To take part: captaintom100.com
A Yorkshire 100: why not try these?
Climb half (nearly) the 199 abbey steps at Whitby
Eat 100 fat rascals
Try the Yorkshire Trod 100 - a 100km, 24 hour challenge event based in the Yorkshire Dales starting and finishing in Grassington.
Count 100 sheep in Swaledale
Watch a century being scored at Headingley (or score one at your local club!)
