‘A Way Forward’, by sculptor Andrian Melka, pays tribute to Captain Sir Tom Moore’s NHS fundraising achievements and his endeavour to inspire others to find a way forward during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The bronze figure is temporarily presented at Yorkshire Sculpture Park before relocation to its longer-term home at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.  There it may offer motivation to those attending the Chapel Allerton Hospital, as patients or visitors, through its embodiment of determination and self-belief.

Melka is a Yorkshire-based sculptor but he was born in Albania. He left his country of birth as an adult in 1997 during a period of civil war with a graduate degree in monumental sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana. He arrived in London on a Getty funded scholarship, studying at the Building Crafts College to develop his masonry skills. Founded by the Worshipful Company of Carpenters in 1893 to train young people in a range of construction crafts in central London, the College relocated in 2001 to Stratford near to the Olympic Park.  Until recently Melka has worked primarily in marble and stone, which he carves directly into. His past commissions include the Golden Jubilee Fountain at the royal family’s Sandringham Estate, the Figure of Christ on the Cross for Bamburgh Castle War Memorial and the Medici Venus for Chiswick House in London.  More recently Melka has expanded his range of sculptural media to include bronze.

This figurative sculpture of Captain Tom, shaped in clay before casting, captures a distinct likeness of his internationally renowned face in concentration whilst taking each step. His stance here, giving a thumbs-up, became an iconic pose. It can be seen to represent a patriotic and nostalgic inclination towards UK identity and the traits we value at times of national crisis, adversity and struggle – perhaps recalling, for some, experience of the nation coming together during the world wars of the twentieth century.

Captain Sir Tom Moore, fondly known as Captain Tom, was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire in 1920.  He was educated at the local grammar school before starting an apprenticeship in civil engineering. In May 1940, eight months after the start of WWII, Moore was conscripted in the 8th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, stationed at Weston Park in Otley. Though Moore was a war-time veteran who served in India and Burma between 1941-45 before returning to become an instructor at the Armoured Vehicle Fighting School in Dorset, he became a public figure at the age of 99 fundraising in aid of NHS Charities Together. Capturing media attention and consequently the hearts of the nation, Moore set out on 6 April 2020 with a goal of raising £1,000 by walking one hundred lengths of his garden in the days leading to his 100th birthday on 30 April that year. In less than one month, Captain Tom raised almost £33 million.