LONDON (Reuters) - Captain Tom Moore, who became a national hero in Britain after raising 33 million pounds ($40.5 million) for the National Health Service in the run-up to his 100th birthday, is to be knighted.

Moore becomes "Sir Tom" after a special nomination from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The World War Two veteran raised the world record sum by painstakingly completing 100 laps of his garden with the aid of a walking frame, becoming a symbol of British endurance in the face of the adversity of the coronavirus crisis.

"Colonel Tom's fantastic fundraising broke records, inspired the whole country and provided us all with a beacon of light through the fog of coronavirus," Johnson said on Tuesday.

"On behalf of everyone who has been moved by his incredible story, I want to say a huge 'thank you.' He’s a true national treasure."

Last month he quipped that he would find it funny to be known as "Sir Thomas Moore" - a reference to the Tudor statesman Sir Thomas More.

Moore's daughter said the whole family was thrilled about his knighthood.

"What an honour, and richly deserved; he is absolutely outstanding," Hannah Ingram-Moore told BBC TV on Wednesday.