'It's time to move on': Captain Tom's daughter says her family's reputation has been 'demolished' by charity investigation
10 February 2025, 09:07 | Updated: 10 February 2025, 13:23
The daughter of Sir Captain Tom Moore has said her family’s reputation has been “demolished” by the investigation into her mismanagement of his charity.
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The World War Two veteran raised a stunning £38.9 million for NHS Charities together, walking 100 laps of his garden in 2020.
The veteran, who died at the age of 100 after contracting Covid, was knighted by the late queen for his fundraising efforts outside Windsor Castle in 2020.
However, a subsequent investigation by the charity commission found inconsistencies relating to the accounts of the Captain Tom Foundation, which was set up in the veteran's honour following his death.
Captain Tom's daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, and her husband, David, who ran the charity, were found to have used charity donations - including advances from the veteran's book deal, for their own benefit.
Speaking for the first time since the charity stopped taking donations, Ms Ingram-Moore declared it is time to “move on” after her family’s reputation was “demolished."
"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,” she said
"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."
Grants of £160,000 were given to four charities by the foundation during its first year of operations, with an additional £162,000 paid out in 'management costs' during the same period.
The charity's financial statements also show £16,097 was reimbursed to Club Nook Limited - a company run by Ms Ingram-Moore.
Ms Ingram-Moore believes it's time for her and her husband to “move on” from their scandal-hit ventures and begin anew.
"We will have to move in the end,” she told GB News
“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.
"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."
She believes her father would think the way her family has been treated is “despicable.”
She concluded: “My father and he 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."
This follows a damming 30-page report published by the Charity Commission in November, which found the Ingram-Moores benefited 'significantly' through their association with the high-profile Captain Tom Foundation.
Failings found in the 30-page report include:
- The couple misled the public about a payment of nearly £1.5m from Captain Tom's books, none of which went to the foundation
- She claimed incorrectly that £18,000 she was given for charity appearances was in a personal capacity, rather than for the foundation
- She and her husband used the foundation in a planning application for a spa and pool annex on the grounds of their house
- Ms Ingram-Moore made 'disingenuous' statements about her salary demands as CEO of the charity
- There was also confusion over handling of intellectual property rights, which the commission said were owned by the family but offered to the foundation to use without the right agreements in place, leading to possible financial losses to the charity
