Capt Tom charity is our deepest regret - daughter

The daughter of pandemic fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore has said she deeply regrets a charity being set up in his name.

Hannah Ingram-Moore admitted the decision almost "derailed" the family's life but claimed "nothing dishonest" happened.

World War Two veteran Capt Sir Tom became a household name during the first Covid-19 lockdown, raising £38.9m for NHS charities after walking up and down his driveway in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.

Mrs Ingram-Moore and her husband became directors of the Captain Tom Foundation, but the Charity Commission has since said they misled the public by benefitting personally from the charity.

The government regulator said the family refused to donate any of the £1.47m received for three Capt Sir Tom books, despite assurances that part of it would be passed to the charity.

The former business consultant maintained to the BBC that her father wanted the family to benefit from the deal.

In a lengthy interview with Justin Dealey for BBC Three Counties Radio, she was questioned about the sequence of events following her father's famous charity walk and the formation of the charity in his honour.

She 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."

The inquiry

Hannah Ingram-Moore did not set up the Captain Tom Foundation but she became co-director and interim chief executive

Capt Sir Tom raised £38.9m for NHS Charities Together in 2020. This money did not form part of the Charity Commission inquiry.

The foundation was subsequently set up and Mrs Ingram-Moore and her husband became directors.

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

The Charity Commission took issue with the book agreement and £28,000 that Mrs Ingram-Moore was paid for deals with Virgin Media.

It also criticised the couple for not consulting trustees about a spa complex built at their home.

Investigators said in November that she and her husband displayed a "pattern of behaviour" in which they benefited personally, and the public would "understandably feel misled".

Mrs Ingram-Moore disputed the 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.

The commission concluded the family's actions did not represent criminal behaviour and it did not pass any findings to the police.

The book deal

The family's private company was paid an advance of £1.47m for Capt Sir Tom’s three books

The publisher Penguin and promoter Carver PR said the family gave repeated assurances that part of the book deal advance would be used to set up and fund the foundation.

A press release, marketing materials and the prologue of Capt Sir Tom's memoir, all stated that the books would be used to support or raise money for the foundation.

Mrs Ingram-Moore insisted her family did not write the marketing material and her father, who she claimed signed the deal with Penguin Random House through his agent, wanted the cash to go to the family.

She said: "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."

The publisher dispute this version of events and told the BBC the first publishing agreement was signed by Mrs Ingram-Moore on behalf of Club Nook, a private firm set up by the Ingram-Moores, and Captain Tom.

Mrs Ingram-Moore also claimed wording in the book's prologue was specified to them by lawyers from Penguin.

However the publisher said the wording was in the original unedited first instalment of the draft manuscript delivered to Penguin on 22 June 2020.

The local council ordered that the spa complex at the family home be taken down, and it was demolished in February 2024

Mrs Ingram-Moore said that after fees were taken into account, the family received £800,000 from the book deal - most of which was spent on legal costs.

She insisted some of that payment went to charity, but declined to say how much when pushed for a figure.

"There is nothing dishonest about what happened," she insisted.

Experienced charity professional Jack Gilbert was chief executive of the foundation, and he told the BBC he was "gobsmacked" by questionable practices he uncovered.

On multiple occasions the presenter invited Ms Ingram-Moore to apologise to members of the public who felt misled but she was adamant she had done nothing wrong.

She said: "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'

During the interview Mrs Ingram-Moore spoke of support she had received from people where she lives in Marston Mortaine but was then played audio of her neighbours telling the BBC they had felt "duped" and that they wanted an apology.

She insisted she had fulfilled any obligations she had from the book deal and it was not a charity book.

"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," she said when pushed again.

When it was pointed out that the book and the charity were launched on the same day and that could be confusing she justified it as a way to benefit the charity.

"None of that needed to happen on the same day. It was done purposefully because everyone thought it would give the charity a huge boost to get people there."

A donation

Capt Sir Tom inspired a nation when he walked up and down his garden for NHS charities

Charity Commission chief executive David Holdsworth urged the Ingram-Moores to "follow through" and "donate a substantial amount to the charity".

Mrs Ingram-Moore refuted that more money was owed when asked if she would be giving any more money.

"That's just a way to try and reverse engineer the fact they want to us to be guilty of something," she said.

"They know absolutely that all the obligations, that were made, were fulfilled in numerous ways and with significant amounts of money.

"They didn't ask my father, that's my point. There was a year in which they could have said to him: 'Oh, Capt Tom we thought much more money was coming'."

Mrs Ingram-Moore said she has had to demonstrate resilience for her children

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

He become ill not long after his family took him on holiday to Barbados.

She said she worried that the public wrongly assumed the £38.9m raised for NHS charities was tampered with.

"For anyone who thinks that there was any question that we could have touched it: Number one, we could not have. And number two, we would not have. And number three, we did not."

A new chapter

Mrs Ingram-Moore is releasing the first of three planned books this year, with two more planned over the next two years

Mrs Ingram-Moore is due to release a self-published book this year entitled Grief: Public Face, Private Loss.

She plans a second book about resilience, and then an autobiography in 2026.

Business clients no longer wanted to work with her, she said, forcing her to pursue a new career as an author.

"Here I am as a woman who's worked predominantly in male-dominated businesses all my life successfully - now nobody thinks that that's worth anything," she said.

"It's devastating."

Asked what her father would have thought of what has happened to her family since his death, Mrs Ingram-Moore said: "He would have lost faith in humanity.

"He would feel that it was so unjust. He would be devastated for us."

Hannah Ingram-Moore described becoming an author as "a very exciting turn in my life"

In July 2023, the Captain Tom Foundation announced it was not actively seeking donations or making payments.

This year, it changed its name to the 1189808 Foundation.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Charity Commission said: "Our rigorous investigation found repeated instances where Hannah and Colin Ingram-Moore's actions blurred the boundaries between their private interests and those of the charity.

"We stand by the findings of our inquiry, which are based on robust evidence."