Captain Tom: a tarnished legacy

At the height of the first Covid lockdown in April 2020, an elderly war veteran set himself the target of walking 100 laps of his daughter's garden before his 100th birthday. Captain Tom Moore's determination and spirit touched the nation's heart, and he raised an unprecedented £38 million for NHS charities.

When he died just nine months later, his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband vowed to carry on his good work, via a charitable foundation set up in his name. But whereas Captain Tom is remembered as a national hero, said Marianka Swain in The Daily Telegraph, the Ingram-Moores are now in danger of being regarded as a national disgrace. The Charity Commission began investigating their activities in 2022. Last week, its report was published, and it makes for depressing reading. The report says the couple repeatedly benefitted from The Captain Tom Foundation by blurring the distinction between its interests and theirs, said Jan Moir in the Daily Mail.

For instance, people who bought Captain Tom's memoir were led to believe that it was in support of good causes. And its publisher did offer to pay a slice of the £1.46m advance for the three-book deal to charity. But the couple declined and all the money was paid to Club Nook, a firm they had set up in April 2020 to manage Captain Tom's intellectual property. Hannah Ingram-Moore took an £18,000 fee to present an award on the Foundation's behalf, on top of the £85,000pa salary she was paid to run it. The charity's website was used to promote merchandise that was being sold by another company controlled by the Ingram-Moores; and then there was the building in the couple's garden. They let council planners believe it would be used by the Foundation, but it turned out to be a £200,000 spa for them.

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It's sad that this affair should risk tarnishing Captain Tom's legacy; but what worries me is its impact on the charitable sector, said J.J. Anisiobi in Metro. Charities are already battling growing scepticism about how donations are spent. Scandals like this further erode vital public trust. The Ingram-Moores say the report is unfair; but they have a way out. To restore their reputation, and public faith in the sector, they could just donate the money they made to the charity