Captain Tom’s daughter says his family’s reputation has been ‘demolished’ by charity investigation

Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter has said his family has been left ‘devastated’ by the official investigation into the charity in his name.  

Hannah Ingram-Moore spoke of their reputation being ‘demolished so quickly’ by the highly critical inquiry into how she and her husband Colin Ingram-Moore handled affairs at the foundation.

The couple made ‘repeated failures’ at the helm of the charity, according to the Charity Commission’s two-year investigation.   

Mrs Ingram-Moore said: ‘The reality is that this has been devastating on a personal level, emotionally, financially, to have a reputation that you build up over decades demolished so quickly.

‘That’s exactly what’s happened.  

‘I have my own business, but no one will touch my business now.

‘Our lives have been devastated – financially we have been completely and utterly depleted.’ 

The World War Two veteran shot to fame as he raised £38.9 million for NHS Charities Together, a separate charity which was not part of the commission’s inquiry, with 100 laps of his garden for his 100th birthday at the height of the lockdown in 2020.    

The Captain Tom Foundation was set up to spread the generosity shown by the centenarian among a wide range of good causes. 

But the watchdog investigated a number of concerns, with CEO David Holdsworth citing ‘repeated instances of a blurring of boundaries between private and charitable interests’, with the couple ‘receiving significant personal benefit.’ 

Mrs Ingram-Moore, speaking to GB News, also touched on the family home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, which they have put up for sale for £2 million. In February 2024, they were forced to demolish an unauthorised spa pool block in the grounds after losing a planning battle with Central Bedfordshire Council to keep it.  

Mrs Ingram Moore said: ‘We will have to move in the end.

‘There used to be seven people in this house, and now everyone’s left. It’s just my husband and me – it’s time for us to move on.

‘Not many people even begin to think that there might have been an impact on us, but here we sit, surrounded by the extraordinary things that were my father’s, and this is where he lived 14 really gloriously happy years.’ 

Asked by broadcaster Nana Akua if she had ‘any regrets’ about how the family handled matters at the charity, Mrs Ingram-Moore replied: ‘I want to be positive because I’m a naturally positive person, I don’t want to look at life down a really dark lens, but it’s hard to see the future in anything other than hard steps forward. 

‘People from 162 countries donated to that £38.9million, and they were not benefiting from the NHS.

‘They were donating for my father, giving hope for my father, and giving them joy for something that he represented. 

‘How could we how could we undo that?

‘He positively touched so many people’s lives. Even now, with the devastation that’s happened afterwards, I’d find it really difficult to say we wouldn’t do it again.’ 

However the company director did express doubt over whether they should have set up the Captain Tom Foundation.  

She said: ‘I think we could have kept the legacy alive without that friend of ours saying, “oh, I think you should set up a charity”. 

“I think if we could change anything, it would probably be that because we could have kept my father’s legacy alive without it.’ 

Captain Tom died in February 2021, after which his family continued the high-profile fundraising campaign in his memory. 

The Ingram-Moores have insisted that there has never been any impropriety in the way they have continued his legacy of goodwill. 

They have previously stated: ‘We remain dedicated to upholding Captain Sir Tom’s legacy and want the public to know that there has never been any misappropriation of funds or unauthorised payments from the charity’s bank account, by any member of our family.’   

The Ingram-Moores were disqualified from being charity trustees at an earlier point in the investigation. The foundation has since taken down its website and removed Captain Tom’s name from its title.

Speaking to Nana, Mrs Ingram-Moore said: ‘My father had a very strong opinion of right and wrong, and he would think how we’ve been treated was despicable. I can only be given the chance to tell what we know to be true, and allow people to make up their own minds.’ 

MORE: Captain Tom charity takes £1,000,000 hit to income

MORE: Gifts donated by Captain Tom fans appear in marketing images for his family home

MORE: Five key findings from damning report into Captain Tom Moore charity