Captain Sir Tom Moore: What has happened to his legacy?

Captain Sir Tom Moore became famous for his fundraising efforts during the first coronavirus lockdown

With the charity set up in the name of Captain Sir Tom Moore the subject of a statutory inquiry and his daughter embroiled in a local planning row, the BBC looks at how the legacy of the man who won the nation's hearts stands in the nation's minds at the moment.

Capt Sir Tom Moore's extraordinary fundraising efforts for National Health Service charities were part of Covid-19 pandemic history, but the charity, which was set up by his family in his honour, is no longer taking donations.

Just over a year ago, the Charity Commission launched an inquiry into the finances of the Captain Tom Foundation, and a building that used the charity's name when it first got planning permission must now be torn down.

Who is Captain Tom and how did his story begin?

Capt Sir Tom won the nation's hearts with his fundraising walk, which took in 100 laps of his garden

Capt Sir Tom was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in 1920. He served in India and Myanmar during World War Two, when it was known as Burma, but at the age of 99 he became an international star by walking laps around his garden.

Early in April 2020, near the start of the coronavirus pandemic, he said he wanted to complete 100 laps of his patio before his 100th birthday at the end of that month, in an attempt to raise an initial £1,000 for the National Health Service.

Capt Sir Tom Moore served in India and Burma during World War Two

At the time, the NHS was under pressure dealing with thousands of Covid-19 patients, and with the nation in lockdown and wanting to help in some way, a determined old man and his walking frame captured a moment and people donated in their droves.

He eventually raised £38m for NHS Charities Together, which works with a network of more than 230 NHS Charities across the UK to support the organisation.

Not only did his efforts encourage thousands to donate, but he inspired many to join his campaign.

A week before his 100th birthday, Capt Sir Tom became the oldest person ever to get to number one in the UK singles charts, when his duet of You'll Never Walk Alone - with singer Michael Ball - took the top spot.

Capt Sir Tom was knighted by the Queen in July 2020

His 100th birthday on 30 April 2020 was marked with an RAF flypast, personal birthday greetings from the Queen and prime minister, and he was made an honorary colonel of the British Army.

On 17 July 2020, he was knighted for his fundraising efforts in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

In October 2023, PR specialist Daisy Souster, who helped the family launch the initial charity appeal, said she was "cut out" by the family and was told by Capt Sir Tom's daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, that she had "no right" to talk about her role.

Ms Ingram-Moore has not responded to the BBC's request for comment about this issue.

When was the Captain Tom Foundation set up and what was it for?

The Captain Tom Foundation was set up following the 100-year-old's death

Capt Sir Tom died in February 2021 aged 100, with coronavirus.

He had become ill not long after his family took him on holiday to Barbados in December 2020 after British Airways paid for his flight, and he tested positive for Covid-19 in hospital in January.

His family said due to other medication he was receiving for pneumonia, he had been unable to be vaccinated.

After his death, the Captain Tom Foundation was set up by his family to support "causes close to Captain Sir Tom's heart" - many of which are detailed on the charity's website including the Florence Nightingale Hospice in Buckinghamshire, the Willen Hospice in Milton Keynes and national organisation Mind.

Why is Captain Tom's charity being investigated?

Hannah Ingram-Moore is the daughter of Capt Sir Tom Moore

In February 2022, the Charity Commission announced it would be reviewing the accounts of the charity.

Grants of £160,000 were given to four charities by the foundation in its first year, but it had paid more than £162,000 in management costs in the same period.

According to the published accounts, covering the charity's first year from 5 May 2020 to 31 May 2021, it paid out grants to four charities worth £40,000 each, but spent £209,433 on support costs - including the £162,336 on "management".

The financial statement also showed reimbursement costs of £16,097 paid to Club Nook Limited - a company run by Hannah Ingram-Moore, the younger of Capt Sir Tom's two daughters, set up shortly before the formation of the charity.

The foundation had said it welcomed the Charity Commission's input.

In June 2022, the Commission said it had launched an inquiry into the foundation amid concerns his family may have profited from using his name.

It said it was concerned about the charity's independence from Club Nook, as well as the trustees' decision-making and how the foundation was governed.

In August 2023, a BBC Newsnight investigation found that thousands of pounds was paid to Maytrix Group, a company owned by Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin, for appearances by her in connection with the Captain Tom Foundation charity - and not to the foundation itself.

She did not respond to those claims but when the foundation's latest accounts were published in September 2023, showing that the watchdog's intervention into the charity had a "massive adverse impact" on fundraising, she posted a statement on her verified Instagram account.

Income had been more than £1m for the 2020-2021 financial year, but fell to £402,854 from June 2021 to November 2022.

Ms Ingram-Moore said she had not been involved in the foundation "in any capacity" since April 2022, and had not made any payments from the charity's bank account during her time as interim chief executive.

In an interview on TalkTV's Piers Morgan Uncensored in October 2023, Ms Ingram-Moore said the family kept the profits from three books that Captain Sir Tom wrote for themselves - at her father's request.

In the prologue to his autobiography, Tomorrow will be a Good Day, which came out in 2020, he said that "with the offer to write this memoir I have also been given the chance to raise even more money" for the foundation.

But Ms Ingram-Moore said there had been no agreement with her father that book money - reportedly £800,000 - would go to charity. There is no suggestion that she has acted illegally by keeping the money, rather than donating it to her late father's charity.

In the same interview, she said her family had received death threats and were left feeling "devastated" by negative reactions to them.

Is the Captain Tom Foundation still raising money?

The Captain Tom Foundation said it would "be in a better position to make a decision" about its future after the inquiry

In July 2023 the charity announced that it was not actively seeking donations or making payments.

It said its "sole focus...is to ensure that it cooperates fully with the on-going statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission".

A statement added that when the inquiry concluded it would "be in a better position to make a decision in relation to its future".

At a planning appeal in hearing in October 2023, to decide a separate matter regarding a controversial spa built in the family's garden, their lawyer Scott Stemp said the foundation was "unlikely to exist" in the future, following the Charity Commission's investigation.

Where did Captain Tom live and what about the planning row?

The spa (the C-shaped building to the right of the pond) is at the home where Capt Sir Tom Moore walked 100 laps of his garden in 2020

The foundation's announcement came as it was reported that Ms Ingram-Moore, who lived with Capt Sir Tom in The Old Rectory, a Grade II listed building in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, was told to knock down an unauthorised building used as a home spa.

The building on the site of the family home - originally approved for the use of the occupiers and the Captain Tom Foundation - had received planning permission in August 2021 and had been partly constructed when revised plans were submitted in February 2022, which included a spa pool, toilets and a kitchen "for private use".

The revised plans for what was called the Captain Tom Building were turned down by Central Bedfordshire Council in November 2022.

A demolition order for the now-unauthorised building was issued, the council said.

The Planning Inspectorate confirmed an appeal had been received and held an in-person hearing on 17 October 2023, attended by the family.

In documents submitted for the appeal, the family said the structure was "no more overbearing than the consented scheme".

Colin Ingram-Moore said there were "no grounds supporting the refusal of the retrospective application" and asked the inspectorate to uphold the family's appeal.

Hannah Ingram-Moore attended the planning appeal hearing alongside her husband and son

At the hearing, their chartered surveyor said the project had "evolved" to include the spa pool which "has the opportunity to offer rehabilitation sessions for elderly people in the area".

A neighbour argued that the building was "49% bigger than what was consented".

On 7 November, the Planning Inspectorate announced it had dismissed the appeal.

In a letter announcing the decision, planning inspector Diane Fleming said the "scale and massing" of the partially-built structure had "resulted in harm" to The Old Rectory and that the "suggested public benefit would not outweigh the great weight to be given to the harm to the heritage asset".

The family had three months to comply with the existing demolition order although there was a period of six weeks during which the decision could be challenged in the High Court.

The deadline to lodge a High Court appeal passed in December and the Planning Inspectorate confirmed that no such application had been received.

The family had to comply with the existing demolition order, which meant that the spa had to come down by 7 February. On 30 January scaffolders arrived at the site and the building was fully removed by the deadline date.

The building was fully removed by the deadline date of 7 February

Neither the Captain Tom Foundation nor Ms Ingram-Moore have responded to the BBC's request for comment on the planning application or the subsequent appeal decision.

In Ms Ingram-Moore's September 2023 statement, she said no charity money had been used in the construction of the new building.

What happened to the money Captain Tom raised?

Nurses from Ward 4 at Royal Liverpool University Hospital sent a message of thanks to Capt Tom

The £38m gained from Capt Tom's walks - managed and distributed by NHS Charities Together - was "not under investigation", the charity confirmed.

NHS Charities Together said money it received for its Covid-19 Urgent Appeal had "funded thousands of projects".

It said its appeal had raised more than £160m from thousands of supporters, which had been "distributed across the network of NHS charities to reach every NHS Trust and Health Board in the UK".

"It has funded thousands of projects and provided vital mental health support for NHS staff, training for emergency volunteers, equipment and support for patients, and community partnership programmes to prevent ill health and reduce pressure on NHS services," the charity said.

It has stressed that the Captain Tom Foundation was a "completely separate organisation".

The September Instagram statement from Ms Ingram-Moore said all the money raised from her father's walk had been given directly to NHS charities and the family had "never been involved in any discussion or decision on this disbursement".

Capt Sir Tom's house up for sale

In April 2024 the family home where Capt Sir Tom had carried out his fundraising walks was put up for sale.

The Grade II listed estate was described as being a historic rectory and coach house in several acres of semi-moated gardens.

It has seven bedrooms, four bathrooms and an asking price of £2.25m.