The charity established in the name of Covid hero Captain Sir Tom Moore has had his name removed, following controversy surrounding the handling of its funds by his family. The war veteran, who was knighted before passing away at the age of 100 in 2021, famously raised over £30 million for the NHS with his garden walks during the pandemic.
However, his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore, 53, and her spouse Colin, 66, faced criticism for allegedly taking profits from his book sales for personal gain instead of donating them to charity. Recent filings at Companies House show that The Captain Tom Foundation has been renamed to The 1189808 Foundation.
The latest accounts, published last summer, showed the organisation had assets exceeding £262,600. Just last week, the foundation’s website vanished shortly after a Charity Commission probe criticised the conduct of Mrs Ingram-Moore and her husband, both of whom became trustees in 2021.
Now, attempts to access the charity’s site result in a notice stating the domain is “not claimed”. In 2023, Mrs Ingram-Moore confessed that her firm, Club Nook, received £800,000 from the profits of Captain Tom’s three books.
In a TV interview, she alleged that her father wanted to keep the profits from his books, Captain Tom’s Life Lessons, One Hundred Steps, and Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, emphasising that purchasers were not informed that proceeds would be donated to charity. However, this assertion was challenged by a passage in the preface of his autobiography, which seemed to indicate he viewed his writing as a means to continue his fundraising efforts, reports the Mirror.
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The extract stated: “Astonishingly at my age, with the offer to write this memoir I have also been given the chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation now established in my name.”
These recent controversies have surfaced shortly after the Mirror disclosed that Captain Tom‘s family had cut £250,000 off their country estate’s asking price and removed any reference to him from the online advertisement. Last year, Captain Tom’s relatives attempted to sell the impressive seven-bedroom property for an ambitious £2.25 million, utilising his recognition in the process.
They cleverly included a picture of Captain Tom being knighted by the late Queen in 2020 within the online listing. Additionally, in a photo capturing the main entryway, viewers could spot a statue replicating the moment he completed his multi-million-pound charity walk amid the pandemic.
However, the property was withdrawn from the open market following criticism of their management of the charity established in his honour. The Marston Moretaine, Beds property is now back on the market for offers over £2million – with no trace of Capt Tom in any of the photos.
The online listing does not mention the veteran’s charitable deeds and does not name his daughter or her husband. It simply states: “The vendors have owned the property for 18 years and have undertaken a comprehensive programme of improvement and renovation.”
In November, the couple faced backlash from a watchdog for profiting more than £1million in his name.
They received substantial financial gain from connections to a charity – the Captain Tom Foundation – that they founded in 2020, according to a report. The Charity Commission stated its investigation into the foundation revealed “repeated failures of governance and integrity”.
Second World War veteran Capt Tom raised nearly £39m for charity during the pandemic by walking 100 lengths of his garden before his 100th birthday in April 2020. He was knighted months later and passed away aged 100 in 2021.
The Charity Commission’s statutory inquiry found the Ingram-Moores‘ “misconduct and/ or mismanagement [was a] repeated pattern of behaviour”. It added that sales of Capt Tom’s autobiography Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day did not benefit the Captain Tom Foundation.
In the prologue, he wrote of being given “the chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation established in my name”.
The Ingram-Moores, directors of Club Nook, received a £1.4m advance for a three-book deal but the charity saw none of the profits, the commission revealed, stating that the public “would feel misled” upon learning the charity did not benefit from sales. In 2023, Mrs Ingram-Moore confessed to keeping book profits and disclosed there was no agreement with her father that proceeds would go to charity.
The watchdog also found evidence suggesting Mrs Ingram-Moore expected a £150,000 salary prior to becoming the charity’s chief. Furthermore, the couple faced criticism for using the charity’s name in a planning application for a spa pool at their home, which they later had to demolish by council order after it was built under the guise of charitable use.
Now banned from being charity trustees, the Ingram-Moores decried the disclosure of the book deal as a privacy breach and claimed they were “unfairly and unjustly” treated, accusing the commission of “selective storytelling”. They lamented the inquiry’s impact on their family’s well-being and its detrimental effect on continuing Captain Sir Tom’s legacy.
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