Captain Sir Tom Moore: 'Horrific' trolling hidden from Army veteran

Captain Sir Tom Moore's family shielded him from "pretty horrific" internet trolling that would have "broken his heart", his daughter said.

The 100-year-old Army veteran, who raised almost £33m for NHS charities by walking laps of his garden, died in Bedford Hospital on 2 February.

Hannah Ingram-Moore said they had faced some "outrageous negativity" after a trip to Barbados in December.

But she said her father left an "incredible legacy".

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mrs Ingram-Moore said Capt Sir Tom's death had left a "deafening silence".

He had been determined to continue raising funds, his daughter said, and was "really excited about coming out for steak and chips and getting his frame back outside".

She spoke about some of the "trolling" the family received over the past year, which culminated after the family holiday to Barbados.

"That trip to the Caribbean was a holiday of a lifetime for him. He sat outside in 29 degrees, in shorts, short-sleeve shirts and sandals," she said.

He read novels, the newspapers, ate fish on the beach and talked with his family.

She said they were "all so pleased we could give him that".

However, the trip caused further backlash.

"I think we accept that whatever we do somebody won't like it and there was outrageous negativity and yet we realised we had to shelter him from that," she said.

"It came in its thickest and fastest when we were already realising he was not very well and that's what triggered it. It felt so grossly unfair.

"What do you do with it, though? We had to put it away and say those people who say those terrible things they have no idea how hurtful they are being obviously otherwise they wouldn't do it.

"They have no idea what we are going through as a family and so we shut it away but it just added a little more pain to the pain that we were going through."

Despite the criticism, the family said they focused on the "massive majority of people who we connect with" rather than a "vile minority".

She added: "We never told him because I don't think he could have ever understood it. I think it would have broken his heart honestly if we'd said to him people are hating us."

Capt Sir Tom had tested positive for Covid-19 the week before he was admitted to hospital.

His family said due to other medication he was receiving for pneumonia, he was unable to be vaccinated.

Mrs Ingram-Moore said: "I think that when he went into hospital we really all believed he'd come back out.

"We thought the oxygen would help, that he would be robust enough - the truth is, he just wasn't."

He was "old and he just couldn't fight it", she said.

She spoke emotionally about the impact Capt Sir Tom had had on the family's life when he moved in to their Marston Moretaine home in Bedfordshire in 2007.

"We've lost a huge part of our life," she said.

"He'd been with us for over 13 years and it's the deafening silence - that's the way I can describe it."

She described him as "everything - he was the noise, he was the reason almost everything we've done together in the last 13 years as a family has centred around what he needed, because his needs were different".

However, she said her father would not have wanted the family to grieve and he himself had remained positive to the end.

"He was really excited about coming out for steak and chips and getting his frame back outside and his walker, and so the last real conversation was positive and about carrying on, and that's a lovely place to be," she said.

"I can honestly say the thing he was so proud of - it just oozed out of him - [was] 'I'm coming back out, there's more fundraising in me yet. There's more walking in me yet.'"

His fighting spirit and positivity would be his legacy that would live on, she said.

She spoke of his pride in the charitable foundation set up in his name after he had completed his fundraising walk which, after Gift Aid, raised a total of £39m.

"What a legacy…a legacy that he could never have imagined that he was going to leave until his last year of life.

"He was so proud and he wasn't a man to articulate pride," she said.

"He really believed - and we really believe - it can make a tremendous, positive difference."

She said the "outpouring of love and condolence" from around the world since his death was announced had been "simply amazing".

"Yes, it's incredibly sad, but his legacy is hope and his legacy is positivity."

She also spoke of his pride at meeting the Queen when he was awarded a knighthood in July - his "standout" moment of a remarkable year.

"Alongside so many incredible things, it seems a little harsh on all the other things, but there is only one, and that was meeting the Queen," said Mrs Ingram-Moore.

"And she said thank you, and recognised what the family had done. We can never undo that, nothing can ever undo that."

The Queen led tributes to Capt Sir Tom when his death was announced.

"We had a lovely letter from her and I think she felt genuine loss - it's another one of her generation," Mrs Ingram-Moore said.

Mrs Ingram-Moore said her father and the family had discussed his funeral last year.

"I said 'I think your idea of the cardboard coffin and using the cheapest funeral that you could, is probably not going to cut it.'

"It was quite emotional for him because I think he was just overjoyed that we were asking, and we wanted him to tell us exactly what he wanted.

"We have a very clear directive from him about what that last day will look like - and how it should go - right down to the sandwiches."

The details have not yet been released but she said they would be "making sure that those final moments for him are exactly what he wanted".

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