AN ILKLEY club has discovered links with Captain Tom Moore after seeing a photograph of him on a motor bike.

Captain Tom captured the hearts of the nation - and received a knighthood - when he raised £32 million by walking laps of his garden for NHS Charities.

Ilkley and District Motor Club historian Janet Kitching began to think about possible connections after seeing pictures of Captain Tom in Burma, with his patrol, in front of a tank and also astride a Scott motorbike with trophies.

Janet, whose father had also served in Burma and India in the Second World War, said the club had many connections with many well-known Scott riders who had been members.

She wrote to Tom’s daughter Hannah in April in an attempt to find out more.

“With regard to the picture of the Scott motorcycle, I said that there had been a lot of ‘head scratching’ and especially as Captain Tom had been born in Keighley,”she said.

“Maurice Rispin, as one of our club’s senior members, owner of Scott Motor Cycles and a member of the Scott Owners’ Club had been unable to trace any record of the Scott bike DN 3612, in spite of his extensive archive and range of knowledge,” she added.

“In the 1920s there was a large Keighley section with one of its most proficient riders, Billy Moore, a builder by trade,” Janet said.

“He was a Scott rider and although he was a private owner of a Scott machine he spent much of his spare time at the Scott works, experimenting with new ideas and gadgets for his several Scott machines, each of which bore the Registration U 6. He had won the Amateur section of the Scott Trial in 1920, 1922 and 1923.

“The Club’s book, So This Is Yorkshire had individual pages about W (Billy) Moore as well as his nephew George Gill and I forwarded copies to Hannah wondering if there could be any connection. There were many motor cycle events in our area and I wondered if Tom had ever been to watch any, as a young boy.”

She then received a phone call from Captain Tom himself who told her: “Billy Moore was my uncle and he lived next door - he was such a lovely man and he loved children. And George Gill was my cousin and he lived next door, in Riddlesden.”

She found out that the motorbike in the photograph had belonged to speedway rider Oliver Langton, who had been president of the Bradford and District Motor Club.

She said: “Needless to say it all seemed rather unreal that Tom had actually telephoned me direct and was so enthusiastic about his connections with Scott bikes and his uncle, Billy Moore. The letter had obviously triggered some happy memories.”

She added: “Maurice Rispin, from the Ilkley Club, has also done plenty of research and believes the Scott came back to C H (Harold) Wood of Bradford and is most probably now in the Bradford Industrial Museum. He is also certain that the Scott in the photo in the newspaper did once belong to Oliver Langton as those are his handlebars.”

She said: “Sir Tom Moore has proved to be such a remarkable man in so many respects and an inspiration to young and old alike. A true Yorkshireman.

“We congratulate him and wish him all the best.”