Captain Tom Moore has been sent more than 40,000 cards ahead of 100th birthday celebrations

'In all my years, I’ve never seen anything like this', says local postmaster

Captain Tom Moore has been sent tens of thousands of cards ahead of his 100th birthday celebrations.

The 99-year-old, who served in India and Burma during the Second World War, became an international celebrity after raising more than £28m for NHS Charities Together by completing 100 laps of his garden in Bedfordshire, before his birthday on 30 April.

Having captured the hearts of people around the world, Captain Moore has now been inundated with cards wishing him a happy birthday.

Many of the war veteran’s fans have been sending their cards to the Royal Mail South Midlands Mail Centre in Northampton, which has had to set up separate boxes on its letter sorting machines to handle all the post addressed to Captain Moore.

The sorting office has received so many cards in fact that Bedford School, which is attended by Captain Moore's grandson Benjie Ingram-Moore, is allowing the centre to use its Great Hall to help a team of 20 volunteers open each card.

“I think a lot of the cards are so heartfelt and it really shows the effort that people have put in, I think he will really appreciate that,” Benjie told the BBC.

“I am going to try and take a picture of as many as I can and show them to him, as he will happily sit through and read them all.“

Bedford School says it has received more than 40,000 birthday cards so far (Bedford School)

So far, the school says it has received more than 40,000 birthday cards and expects this number to grow over the coming days.

A post shared by school on social media said: “Yesterday our Great Hall was transformed into Captain Tom's Sorting Office where a team of socially-distancing staff began the mammoth task of opening the tens of thousands of 100th birthday cards sent to Captain Tom.

“Watch this space to see how the deliveries unfold.”

Captain Moore's grandson, Benjie, is taking pictures of the cards to show his grandfather (Bedford School)

Bill Chandi, who is in charge of the local post office, told the Bedford Independent: “In all my years as a postmaster, I’ve never seen anything like this.

“We’re ecstatic for Tom. Whenever he used to pop into our shop he’d always say to me that post offices are at the centre of the community.

“I spoke to him on Saturday and told him that’s certainly true now.”

A Spitfire salute is reportedly being prepared to commemorate Captain Moore’s 100th birthday.

A team of aircraft restorers from the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar in south-east London is reportedly hoping to organise a Second World War-era flypast to mark the milestone celebration.

Captain Moore has been inundated with cards wishing him a happy birthday (Bedford School)

A member of the team, 21-year-old Alex Monk, explained the motivation behind organising the flypast, telling The Telegraph: “It will be a bit of a morale-booster for us all, really, to see a Spitfire in the sky.

“It’s been the symbol of freedom in the past and quite an icon for Tom.”