Captain Tom emerged as a symbol of hope during the dark days of lockdown – but his daughter’s shocking antics have since threatened to overshadow his determined charity work.
The British Army veteran, who died in February 2021 at the age of 100, began walking lengths of his garden in the spring of 2020 with the aim of raising £1,000 for NHS Charities Together by his 100th birthday. He ended up raising almost £39 million and received a BBC Sports Personality of the Year award and even knighthood for his efforts.
All the while, Captain Tom’s daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, stuck by his side during interviews, often speaking of the “richness of living in a multi-generational household”. A successful businesswoman, Ingram-Moore had invited her elderly father to live with her family in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, and was there looking proudly on when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle.
Following Captain Tom’s passing, Ingram-Moore and her chartered accountant husband Colin vowed to continue her father’s legacy and, in August 2021, they were granted permission to build a Captain Tom Foundation Building to house the pandemic hero’s memorabilia.
However, although the couple used the foundation’s name on their first set of plans, this was not used on a retrospective application for a larger £200,000 building complete with a luxury spa pool. It was then that things started to unravel for the once-respected family, who previously received a warm reception in the Royal Box at Wimbledon in 2021 as they grieved Captain Tom’s passing.
Just three years later, however, Ingram-Moore and Colin have been barred from serving as charity trustees by the Charity Commission, with a scathing new report finding that Ingram-Moore pocketed more than £1million in her famous father’s name…
Furious petition
The Charity Commission launched an inquiry into the foundation in June 2022 after concerns were raised about the management of the Captain Tom Foundation, with then-interim chief executive officer Ingram-Moore earning a gross salary of £63,750 for the nine-month period from August 2021 to April 2022.
In November of that same year, the council refused the retrospective planning permission for the revised spa plans, while indignant local residents signed a petition for the structure to be ripped down, blasting it as “ugly, featureless, overbearing, oversized and completely out of character”.
In November 2023, despite the family’s objections, it was ruled that the unauthorised building, located at the Ingram-Moores’ Bedfordshire home, be demolished within three months, after it was determined that the retrospecive application had now featured the word “charity” or “foundation”. In their application, the Ingram-Moores had claimed the building would be partly used “in connection with The Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”.
The commission has also criticised the couple for using the foundation’s name in their planning application, which Ingram-Moore and her husband claimed had been an error. They blamed this alleged oversight on being busy “undertaking global media work”.
In this recent report, it said planners had given “significant weight… to the fact that the charity was to use the proposed building for its charitable purposes,” while evidence would suggest the couple were in fact “using the charity and its name inappropriately for their private benefit”.
Piers Morgan revelations
In October 2023, Ingram-Moore confessed to pocketing money from the funds raised during an explosive interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV. Revealing they’d kept £800,000 from the three books penned by Captain Tom, Ingram-Moore claimed her father had wanted them to keep the profits. She insisted: “They were my father’s books. He wrote them and he decided what to do with the income from them. It was his wishes, not ours. He made the decision about the things that he did.”
Although the family claimed that there was no suggestion that anyone buying the books believed the profits would go to charity, the prologue to Sir Tom’s autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, published in September 2020, does appear to insinuate money would go towards the Captain Tom Foundation. The prologue reads: “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.”
Reflecting on her choices, Ingram-Moore, who says her family have received death threats after the claims came to light, admitted: “We have to accept that we made a decision, and it was probably the wrong one.” During the televised interview, a photograph taken inside the notorious spa complex was shown on screen, as the family continued to insist they’d done nothing wrong and had not taken funds from the charity to build the relaxation space.
‘Swinger’ jibes
Photographs shown during the Piers Morgan interview showed the inside of the most talked about home spa in recent history, and some weren’t exactly impressed by Ingram-Moore’s decor choices.
One user wrote: “The placement of that sofa thing facing the jacuzzi is very unsavoury. Like the scene of a deeply unhappy swingers’ party.”
Meanwhile, another joked: “The real criminal is the architect who designed her spa to look like a 1970s GP surgery… I’m surprised they haven’t just ruled it’s too ugly to comply with planning regs.”
The C-shaped complex, referred to as the ‘Captain Tom Building’, included a spa pool, changing rooms, toilets, and showers, as well as a kitchen area for “personal use”. But it was reduced to bricks before the family could make use of it.
Neighbours’ glee
Ingram-Moore’s neighbours rejoiced as her “eyesore” spa was finally torn down back in January, with Ingram-Moore seen looking glum as the sink was taken out, at a time of utter humiliation for the family. Photos also show the pool being lifted out of the gutted block by a crane, to the delight of those who were only too happy to see the back of it. After eight days, the partly finished block was reduced to rubble, shortly after the anniversary of Captain Tom’s death.
Speaking at the time, villager Sue Martindale, 60, said: “They live in a big house, and they thought they could get away with it. They deserve what they have got.” Meanwhile, neighbour Jilly Bozdogan, 70, remarked: “The tiles are coming off fast and furious. I am glad they are finally getting on with it. It has been a long, drawn-out saga. My garden backs onto I,t and it is an eyesore. I have had to plant trees to try to block it out.”
Another neighbour, 68-year-old Richard Gough, recalled hearing one of the workmen throwing tiles down from the roof, with the demolition coming as no great loss to the local community. Richard’s wife Lesley, 67, added: “It was not nice for the people who live next to the building. There were trees there before and a tennis court. It is a shame they let it go on for so long.
“I think they thought they could get away with it. Captain Tom was so popular. His legacy has got lost. He did all those good things, and people aren’t talking about that anymore.”
An unnamed woman, whose home had been overlooked by the controversial spa, expressed relief as work got underway to tear the despised property down. She noted: “It is a humiliation for Hannah. I think she thought she could get away with it. I wonder if they will move when it is all over.”
Agreeing that it had not been a pleasant sight to put up with, another individual reflected: “It is a shame because of all the good he has done – they have tarnished it. It is not a good look for the village.”
‘Mental anguish’
Now, the Charity Commission’s new report has concluded that Ingram-Moore and her husband gained “significant” financial benefit from charity links established during the pandemic, with a probe of The Captain Tom Foundation uncovering “repeatedly failures of governance and integrity”.
A spokesperson for the Captain Tom Foundation stated: “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.”
Meanwhile, the Ingram-Moores have shared how they have felt “unfairly and unjustly” treated, accusing 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 family went on to assert that 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”.
Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com
