Captain Tom’s family reveal hateful ‘trolling’ following his death
The family have been targeted with abuse online
The family of Sir Captain Tom Moore have admitted they were forced to protect him from online trolls and insults in the days leading up to his death.
The 100-year-old WW2 veteran, who raised over £32m for the NHS during the first national lockdown in 2020, sadly passed away on February 2, after testing positive for Covid-19.
However, despite a swell of public support following his death, his daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, stated her father was also the victim of targeted abuse.
“We had to use our family resilience, our emotional resilience, and we never told him”, she told an interview with BBC Breakfast.
“Because I don’t think he could ever have understood it. I think it would have broken his heart, honestly, if we’d said to him people are hating us.
“I couldn’t tell him, because how do you rationalise to a 100-year-old that something so incredibly good can attract such horror?
“We contained it in the family and said that we won’t play to them, we’re not talking to those vile minority, because we are talking to the massive majority of people who we connect with.”
The family of Captain Sir Tom Moore have spoken for the first time about his final days.
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) February 17, 2021
Sir Tom's daughter tells #BBCBreakfast about coping with their loss, their pride in his achievements, and the online abuse they shielded him from. https://t.co/ILIXZPlcW6 pic.twitter.com/aV1bZCRnHj
Ms Ingram-Moore indicated the bulk of the trolling was directed towards the family’s decision to travel with her father to Barbados on holiday at the end of 2020.
A 35-year-old man has already been charged in connection with posting an offensive Twitter message directed towards Captain Tom, and he will appear before Lanark Sheriff Court today (Wednesday, February 17).
Meanwhile his family have also revealed their ongoing grief, with Ms Ingram-Moore stating they ‘really believed he return from hospital’.
“I said to him in the last few days: ‘So, what do you want to eat when you come home?’ And we decided on 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.
“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 couldn’t fight it,” she added, describing how she was dressed in full PPE while sitting next to him.
She also added the family intend to continue his fundraising legacy in the months ahead to raise more money for the NHS.
