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First look at £60,000 bronze Captain Sir Tom Moore statue revealed on This Morning

11 February 2021, 12:08

A sculpture from Yorkshire created the statue six months ago. Picture: Getty/ITV

By Alice Dear

As people continue to request a statue in memory of Captain Sir Tom Moore, one sculptor has revealed one he created six months ago.

Following the death of NHS fundraising hero Captain Sir Tom Moore, people have been campaigning to have a statue of the former solider displayed in the UK.

With the Prime Minister backing the project, it appears that Sir Tom will be honoured at some point in the future.

However, one sculptor has already created a life-size statue of the WWII hero, and it made its debut on This Morning today.

Tony Clark, 44, from Yorkshire told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on the show that his friend, Keith Sharratt, commissioned the piece six months ago.

The statue of Sir Tom was moved into the This Morning studio. Picture: ITV

The pair hoped that the statue would "immortalise" Sir Tom in his hometown in Bradford.

The statue, which is a life-size model of Sir Tom walking laps of his garden to raise money for the NHS, is a bronze sculpture which cost £60,000 to make.

Tony previously told The Times that they started creating the piece when Sir Tom raised £2.5million for the NHS – he then went on to raise nearly £40million.

The bronze statue is life-size and shows Sir Tom walking laps of his garden. Picture: ITV

He explained: "Firstly we had to create it out of clay with a team of artists I have over in Indonesia.

"Then we created resin, then we casted it in bronze. It took around two months before we were happy with it in clay.

“We did it all off photos [of Sir Tom] and Wikipedia. We tried to gauge roughly how tall he would be when he was bending down. We didn’t enlarge it. We wanted it to be realistic to his actual size and get it as real as we can.”

The statue was created by Tony Clark. Picture: ITV

The statue has been called The Walk of Hope, and has now caught the attention of local authorities in Keighley who are interested in erecting the statue.

A spokesman for Leeds city council said: “Tony Clark’s statue is a wonderful piece of art and a truly fitting tribute to such a remarkable man who not only raised a staggering amount of money but brought us joy, inspiration and a reason to smile during some of the darkest days of the pandemic.

"We would be delighted to liaise with Captain Sir Tom’s relatives, and Mr Clark, to consider any ideas for a future location of the statue respecting the family’s wishes.”

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