Captain Sir Tom Moore’s heroic legacy has been shrouded by his daughter’s dark controversies.
The World War II veteran became an overnight national treasure when he walked 100 laps around his garden ahead of his 100th birthday, raising nearly £39million for the NHS. His selfless act took hold during the coronavirus lockdown, when the health service was on its knees.
His family set up the charity, The Captain Tom Foundation, and after his sad death in February 2021, his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore stepped into the limelight, taking the reigns of the foundation. However, she has since found herself in hot water on more than one occasion.
Now, Hannah, 53, and her husband Colin, 66, have been slammed by a watchdog for pocketing £1million in his name. The Charity Commission said a probe of the foundation has uncovered repeated instances of misconduct by the pair, who have been banned from being charity trustees.
Here, the Mirror takes a look back at the famous veteran’s daughter’s most eyebrow-raising moments – from controversially erecting a spa at their family home to taking her father on that holiday to Barbados…
£1.4million payout
The Commission revealed sales of Captain Tom’s autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, did not benefit the foundation. In the book’s foreword, he wrote of being given “the chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation now established in my name”.
But, an advance of £1.4million was paid to Club Nook, a company of which Hannah and Colin are directors. Literary agent Bev James, who represented Captain Tom, said the couple were “very clear” they did not want the money to go to charity. The probe found the charity “has not received any money from the first publishing agreement”.
The Charity Commission “concluded that the public had a reasonable expectation that the Captain Tom books they purchased, in particular Captain Tom’s autobiography Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, would have financially benefited the charity and the public would understandably feel misled given no donation has been made to the charity.”
“The Ingram-Moores’ failure to honour the donation to the charity following the first publishing agreement, and the misconduct and/or mismanagement as evidenced in this report, has seriously damaged the reputation of the charity”.
Hannah previously broke down in tears during an interview with Piers Morgan, where she admitted to keeping £800,000 from the sales of her father’s books. She explained he wanted his family to keep the money from the books in Club Nook Ltd rather than the charity.
She told Piers: “These were my father’s books, and it was honestly such a joy for him to write them, but they were his books. He had an agent and they worked on that deal, and his wishes were that that money would sit in Club Nook, and in the end…” Piers interjected: “For you to keep?”She clarified: “Yes. Specifically.”
The family told Piers that they believed that anyone buying the books had no reason to think they were donating to charity. But the Commission said today the public “would understandably feel misled” to learn that the charity did not benefit from the book sales, and it has “seriously damaged the reputation of the charity”.
Barbados getaway
Captain Tom fulfilled a lifelong dream shortly before Christmas 2020 when he went on a bucket list holiday to Barbados. But when he caught coronavirus and died just weeks after the trip, many questioned the decision-making behind the jaunt.
The Moore family flew out to the Caribbean Island on December 11, with the trip arranged by British Airways and Visit Barbados to thank Tom for his selfless achievement. There, Captain Tom posed for one of his final photos alongside singer Cliff Richard and comedian Russ Abbot.
Sadly the 100-year-old veteran died two months later on February 2 at Bedford Hospital following a short battle with Covid-19 and pneumonia. Trolls blasted the family for taking Tom – who had been receiving treatment for prostate and skin cancer before his death – away at such a risky time.
But then Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan hit back at critics, defending the family: “You know Hannah told me about how it hurt them. It hurt them at a time when at their darkest moment with their dad, their grandad. You just added a little bit more despair and misery and hurt onto what they were suffering as a family.”
£150,000 salary
The Commission said there was evidence Hannah set out expectations for a £150,000 salary before becoming the charity’s chief executive. It also revealed she personally pocketed an £18,000 fee for appearing at an awards ceremony. Just £2,000 was donated to the charity after she claimed her appearance at the Virgin Media Awards was undertaken in a personal capacity.
Hannah previously spoke on ITV’s This Morning about the salary claims. She denied that the foundation has planned to appoint her chief executive on a salary of £150,000. “The £150,000, it’s absolutely not true,” she said. “What the trustees did was ask for a benchmarking, ‘If we were to employ a CEO what’s the highest, what’s the lowest’. The highest happened to be £150,000, the lowest was about £60,000, depending on the charity, so it’s simply not true.”
When it came to addressing reports that the charity paid more than £50,000 to companies run by her and her husband, she admitted they had loaned money from her business to the charity and it was reimbursed. “We published our first annual accounts and they are independently audited and in that first year of the charity, my business loaned the foundation some money because we didn’t want to eat into the first donation we had which was £100,000 from a corporate donator,” she said.
“And that’s all we had, and we didn’t want to take that money for costs, so we loaned it on the basis that we were lending money from my business that was also suffering during the pandemic, so we need to have it reimbursed. So, very straightforward – when the charity had a bit more money, we were reimbursed those costs and that landed us a headline, that I had essentially paid myself £50,000 into my own business, which was absolutely not the case.”
She continued: “I think we’ve been incredibly naive but I don’t think that that means we’re bad. I think that we’re wholesome, good people and we run businesses we understand. But I think we stepped into this for love, for humanity, for allowing as many as people as possible access to his legacy. We never thought of the darkness, it never, never crossed our minds.”
Home spa
The Commission criticised the couple for using the foundation’s name in a planning application for a spa block at the £1.2million Bedfordshire home, which housed a pool and changing facilities. Hannah and Colin said it had been an error which they blamed on being busy “undertaking global media work”.
The report authors said evidence suggested the couple “were using the charity and its name inappropriately for their private benefit”. The £200,000 block, built in 2021, was demolished earlier this year after a revised planning application did not feature the words “charity” or “foundation”.
Speaking about the spa in an interview with Piers Morgan last year, the TV host asked: “When I first walk in the first thing I see is a luxurious spa pool, that’s got nothing to do with Captain Tom. Why are you reluctant to get rid of it? I’ve asked this a few times now… I’ll give you one last chance.”
Grilling the family on their financial affairs, the TalkTV host questioned: “Neither of you have ever made any money directly from the Foundation for personal gain?” To which Colin replied: “Not a penny.”
In November 2023, the couple were told they had to tear down the facility for good after it was ruled that the outbuilding was constructed illegally. And in January, builders arrived to commence the demolition.
A spokesperson for the Captain Tom Foundation said: “The Captain Tom Foundation is pleased with the Charity Commission’s unequivocal findings regarding the Ingram-Moores’ misconduct.
“We join the Charity Commission in imploring the Ingram-Moores to rectify matters by returning the funds due to the Foundation so that they can be donated to well-deserving charities as intended by the late Captain Sir Tom Moore.
“We hope they do so immediately and without the need for further action.”
The Ingram-Moores said they felt “unfairly and unjustly” treated and accused the commission of “selective storytelling”. They said: “A credible regulatory body would provide the full truth, rather than misrepresenting, and conflating facts and timelines that align with a predetermined agenda.
“True accountability demands transparency, not selective storytelling.” They said the inquiry had taken a “serious toll on our family’s mental and physical health, unfairly tarnishing our name and affecting our ability to carry on Captain Sir Tom’s legacy”.
A lawyer for the family has previously indicated the charity might shut down, and the foundation stopped taking donations in summer 2023. The Mirror has contacted Hannah Ingram-Moorefor comment.
