Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter reveals his funeral wishes, including writer-inspired epitaph

Captain Sir Tom Moore‘s daughter has today revealed the fundraising hero’s funeral wishes, ahead of plans to celebrate his remarkable life this weekend.

Hannah Ingram-Moore said the 100-year-old World War Two veteran had set out his requests in a ‘lovely’ and ‘open’ conversation prior to his death. 

She revealed the national treasure wanted Victoria sponge cake and sandwiches at his funeral and had asked for his ashes to be taken to the family grave in Yorkshire.

And she said Captain Tom, who passed away earlier this month after contracting pneumonia and coronavirus, wanted a Spike Milligan-inspired epitaph ‘I told you I was old’ inscription on his grave-stone. 

Speaking in a heartwarming interview with Good Morning Britain, ahead of Captain Tom’s funeral this weekend, she said: ‘Of course, he was older so the concept of talking about death was a real one.

‘But we had a lovely conversation, he and I, in his kitchen, and I said to him the thought of a very quiet funeral might not cut it and that people might be quite interested, and he said in his Yorkshire accent “Do you think so?”.

‘And so I asked him what he wanted and his wishes were really clear, he said he would like to be cremated and his ashes taken to the family grave in Yorkshire.

‘He was very descriptive about the songs he wanted to be played and he wanted us to eat Victoria sponge cakes and sandwiches after, and was so glad he didn’t have to make them.’

Ms Ingram-Moore also revealed her father had asked to have ‘I told you I was old’ engraved on his headstone in tribute to a joke by his favourite comic growing up.

The witty line is inspired by comedian Spike Milligan’s famous epitaph ‘I told you I was ill’, which he said had ‘always made me laugh’.

Ms Ingram-Moore added: ‘He had a sense of humour and that humour runs in the family.’

Captain Tom had made the sweet request in a to-be-published book called Captain Tom’s Life Lessons. 

Speaking openly about his funeral arrangements, Captain Tom said he would like a small white headstone – ‘Nothing too fancy’ – and hoped it could be adorned with the line from Milligan.

‘When I was younger I enjoyed listening to The Goon Show on the wireless, and one of the comedians who always made me laugh the hardest was Spike Milligan.

‘Like me, he fought in the Second World War, but was wounded in Italy. When he died at the age of 83, he wrote his own epitaph, which was engraved in Gaelic on his headstone. It reads: ‘I told you I was ill’.

‘This always made me laugh, so I think I’d ask for the simple inscription of my name, the dates of my earthly span, and the words: “I told you I was old”.’ 

Captain Tom’s family have said his funeral, being held on Saturday, would be a ‘small’ private service as they urged the public to stay at home.

The NHS fundraising hero’s daughters Lucy Teixeira and Hannah Ingram-Moore said today that they had ‘no choice’ but to hold a ceremony for family only. The location has not yet been revealed but it is likely to be in his home county of Bedfordshire.

They also revealed Captain Tom had written about his funeral in a book before his death, saying he wanted it to end with My Way by Frank Sinatra ‘because I always did things my way and especially like the line about having too few regrets to mention’.

In the book, Captain Tom added that it was ‘odd and rather touching to think that people might weep over my passing – strangers I’ve never even met’ and that he would want to look down and ‘chuckle at everyone making a lot of fuss over me’.

The family said Captain Tom had openly spoken about his funeral over the past year and had wondered if ‘perhaps the interest in him over the last 12 months would mean we would need to have more Victoria sponge cakes available for the extra guests’. 

He captured the hearts of Britain with his fundraising during the first lockdown when he walked 100 laps of his Bedfordshire garden before his 100th birthday.

The Second World War veteran, who raised more than £32million for NHS Charities Together, died at Bedford Hospital on February 2 after testing positive for Covid-19.

In line with current restrictions, the funeral will be attended by eight members of Sir Tom’s immediate family – his two daughters, four grandchildren and his sons-in-law.

The family will inter Sir Tom’s ashes in Yorkshire, with his parents and grandparents in the Moore family plot, once this is permitted by eased coronavirus restrictions.

Captain Tom’s family said they understood that so many people wanted to pay their respects, but urged the public to ‘continue to support the NHS by staying at home’.

They added that they had set up an online book of condolence and people could also donate to The Captain Tom Foundation or plant a tree in his memory.

Captain Tom’s family said he had also spent ‘many enjoyable hours’ in the final few months of his life writing a book called Captain Tom’s Life Lessons.

He wanted to release this just before his 101th birthday, but his relatives said the final chapter was ‘so poignant and reading it brings us so much comfort and warmth’.

They are therefore sharing the last chapter ‘as a thank you, from our father Tom and us as a family, for the love and kindness the nation and the world have shown him’. 

In the chapter, Captain Tom writes: ‘Previously, my funeral would have made one little line in the local newspaper and been attended by only a handful of people, but I expect there’ll be a few more now.

‘Someone will have to make extra cake and sandwiches, and it won’t be me.

‘I want the service to end with My Way by Frank Sinatra because I always did things my way and especially like the line about having too few regrets to mention. 

‘It’s odd and rather touching to think that people might weep over my passing – strangers I’ve never even met.

‘If I can, I’d like to watch my own funeral from a distance.

‘That would be quite the joke as I looked down and chuckled at everyone making a lot of fuss over me.’

He said he wished to be cremated and for his ashes to be taken to Yorkshire, but would not mind a ‘little white headstone somewhere to mark my existence, a bit like the ones they have in military cemeteries’.

He said for his epitaph he would ask for the ‘simple inscription of my name, the dates of my earthly span, and the words: ‘I told you I was old” – in reference to comedian Spike Milligan’s famous epitaph ‘I told you I was ill’. 

Shortly after his death earlier this month, Ms Teixeira said Captain Tom would have a ‘quiet’ send-off and the family was planning an understated funeral that would be ‘suitable’ for him.  

She said at the time: ‘At the moment, my sister Hannah and I are planning a careful send-off that is suitable to him, quite quiet in a manner that he would say to us ‘well done, girls’.

‘I know that there are things being talked about, but my sister and I are focussing on planning the next stage and celebrating the end of his life.’ 

Last week, Mrs Ingram-Moore revealed the family received a ‘lovely letter for the Queen’ following his death, adding that the monarch felt ‘genuine loss’.

She said the Queen and her father were ‘two similar souls’ and would have probably had ‘a cup of tea and had a good chin wag’ after he was knighted last year, if it wasn’t for the pandemic.

Buckingham Palace paid a personal tribute following his death, with a spokesman saying the Queen’s thoughts were with his family – and the flag at Number 10 was lowered to half-mast.

Captain Tom, from Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, was knighted by the 94-year-old Queen in a unique outdoor ceremony at Windsor Castle on July 17. 

As well as being knighted, Captain Tom was made an honorary colonel and an honorary member of the England cricket team.

Mrs Ingram-Moore also said last week how Captain Tom’s heart would have been ‘broken’ to hear about trolling the family received.

Speaking about her father’s days in hospital and their final family holiday to the Caribbean, she said she could not tell her father ‘people are hating us’ after his mammoth fundraising efforts.

She told BBC Breakfast: ‘I couldn’t tell him. I think it would have broken his heart, honestly, if we’d said to him people are hating us. 

‘Because how do you rationalise to a 100-year-old man that something so incredibly good can attract such horror?

‘So we contained it within the four of us and we said we wouldn’t play to … that vile minority, we wouldn’t play to them, we’re not, because we are talking to the massive majority of people who we connect with.’

Mrs Ingram-Moore also said her father had wanted to come home to steak and chips after he was admitted to hospital with coronavirus.

She said: ‘I said to him in the last few days: ‘So, what do you want to eat when you come home?’ And we decided it was steak and chips.

‘He was really excited about coming out for steak and chips and getting his frame back outside and his walker.

‘The last real conversation was positive and about carrying on, and that’s a lovely place to be.’

Mrs Ingram-Moore said that when Captain Tom went into hospital, the family ‘really all believed he’d come back out’. 

‘We thought the oxygen would help, that he would be robust enough, (but) the truth is he just wasn’t. He was old and he just couldn’t fight it,’ she added.

Before he died, the centenarian got to tick a holiday in the Caribbean off his bucket list when the family travelled to Barbados just before Christmas.

‘It was just amazing,’ Mrs Ingram-Moore said. 

‘He sat in 29 degrees outside, he read two novels, he read the newspapers every day, and we sat and we talked as a family, we went to restaurants (because we could there) and he ate fish on the beach and what a wonderful thing to do. I think we were all so pleased we managed to give him that.’

Captain Tom’s Life Lessons will be published on April 2. 

Sculptor is hoping to raise £28,500 to create a two-metre-tall bronze statue of Captain Sir Tom Moore to place in a hospital as a tribute to the Second World War veteran 

A sculptor is hoping to raise £28,500 to create a two-metre-tall bronze statue of Captain Sir Tom Moore to place in a hospital as a tribute to the Second World War veteran.

Andrian Melka, of Bolton Percy, in North Yorkshire, said he hopes the sculpture will provide inspiration for staff, patients and visitors and remind them that “one step in front of the other will get you somewhere”.

The statue will portray the 100-year-old fundraiser giving the thumbs-up as he completed 100 laps of his Bedfordshire garden ahead of his milestone birthday last year.

Mr Melka said he was inspired by that moment to create the full-size statue – which will have a seat on the walking frame to enable people to interact with the sculpture.

He said: “I started after the death of Captain Sir Tom with a little model, just thinking of that moment when he finished his laps and he just raised a thumb up and he was quite inspiring to me seeing that.”

He added: “What made me decide was his determination for doing what he wanted to do at the age that he was and it just reminded me of that old generation who fought in the Second World War.”

Mr Melka said he began the two to three-month process by making a small model and will go on to create a full-size statue in clay before making a mould for the sculpture to be cast in bronze by a London-based foundry.

He has set up a fundraising website to raise the money needed to cover the costs of the foundry and has so far raised more than £12,000.

He said: “It’s very expensive because it’s an expensive process, it’s a very long process and very skilled process.”

The sculptor said he has been talking to Leeds hospitals about the possibility of donating the statue.

He said: “My best intention is for this to go into hospital and to be used for inspiration for the nurses working there mainly and for the people being there visiting the hospital and interacting with the statue as well.”

He added: “It will be amazing because, first of all, what he did and the money raised for the NHS, and for the hospital to have this there and just remind themselves that one step in front of the other will get you somewhere.”

Mr Melka’s fundraising page can be found at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/creating-a-bronze-statue-of-captain-sir-tom-moore