The daughter of Captain Sir Tom Moore has said it is her family’s “deepest regret” that their charity accused of repeated misconduct was set up in her late father’s name.
The Second World War veteran became a household name during the Covid pandemic after raising £38.9m for NHS charities by doing laps of his garden in the run-up to his 100th birthday. He died with coronavirus in February 2021.
Established in June 2020, the Captain Tom Foundation aimed to use his legacy to raise money for organisations supporting the elderly. The veteran’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin were appointed trustees in February 2021.
But it was repeatedly rocked by controversy, with a damning Charity Commission report finding in November that the family “repeatedly benefited” from the charity and engaged in a “pattern of behaviour” which saw them personally earn more than £1m.
In fresh remarks to the BBC, Ms Ingram-Moore said: “It didn’t need to be set up as a charity, we could have continued that legacy without it, because what it's done is all but completely derailed our lives.
“It was set up with my father’s name and that is our deepest regret.”
In its report, the Charity Commission said Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband had allowed the public to “understandably feel misled” after sales from her father’s autobiography were not donated to the charity.
Despite the prologue of Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day implying that its sales would benefit the charity, his family kept the reported £800,000 profits for themselves, the commission said.
But Ms Ingram-Moore told BBC Three Counties Radio on Thursday: “There is nothing dishonest about what happened. The book said it would support the launch [of the foundation] and it did. There was never a specific amount of money required.
“I’m sorry they feel misled, I genuinely am, but there was never any intent to mislead. If there was any misleading it wasn't our doing.”
Ms Ingram-Moore said her late father had signed the £1.5m publishing agreement with Penguin Random House and their family’s company Club Nook via his agent, and had wanted the money to go to his family.
“He was of very sound mind – he wanted us to benefit and he chose where to put it. It was his money,” she said. “He wanted to ensure that we lived well, that we had future income, because he could see that Covid had been quite devastating to our business.”
In January, Captain Sir Tom’s name was dropped from the charity – and was changed instead to the 1189808 Foundation, reflecting the organisation’s charity number.
The foundation first came under investigation in March 2021 over its accounts, which showed that during its first year of operation, just £160,000 was given away in charitable grants while £240,000 was spent on management.
The Charity Commission expanded this into a statutory inquiry in June 2022 amid concerns about the charity’s management and independence from Sir Tom’s family and their companies.
That expansion came after the Charity Commission had intervened to block a move to appoint Ms Ingram-Moore as chief executive on a £100,000 salary, which it said was “neither reasonable nor justifiable”.
Another point of controversy was the family’s application for planning permission for a Captain Tom Foundation building containing a spa facility on disused tennis courts at their Grade II-listed family home in Bedfordshire. They were later ordered to demolish the structure.
Last July, the Ingram-Moores released a statement saying they had been banned from being charity trustees, and described the Charity Commission’s investigation as a “harrowing and debilitating ordeal”.
In her comments this week, Ms Ingram-Moore disputed the watchdog’s damning 30-page report but said it would have taken too much time and money to contest the findings.
“We gracefully bowed out and said we'll have to accept what they say, even though we know it not to be true and get on with our lives,” she said.
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