LONDON:
Tom Moore, the redoubtable 100-year-old army veteran whose
charity walks raised $45 million for British hospitals and made him a national symbol of pluck in a country ravaged by the pandemic, died on Tuesday. His death was announced on his
Twitter account. Moore had been treated for pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus last month, his daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, said on January 31.
Dapper, spry and droll, Moore ambled his way into the hearts of people across Britain 82 steps at a time — the number it took to cover the length of a brick patio beside his garden in Marston Moretaine. He did 100 laps before turning 100 last April. Moore’s feat, which grew out of a challenge from his son-in-law, became a media sensation when Ingram-Moore publicised her father’s walks and began a fundraising campaign for the National Health Service. In the process, Moore became a pop-culture phenomenon. He negotiated a multi-book deal, recorded a chart-topping song and was granted a knighthood.
Moore’s last days were clouded slightly by criticism of a trip that he and his family took to Barbados in December.