More money on management and admin than for good causes, three watchdog probes into its set-up… The perplexing questions over charity founded by Captain Tom Moore’s daughter that some fear may tarnish his legacy
- The Captain Tom Foundation was set up by the family of the famous war veteran
- Questions were raised after its first accounts were published and showed how cash has been spent so far including that £162k had gone on management fees
- It was claimed charity tried to appoint his daughter as CEO with £150,000 salary
- The Charity Commission blocked the move and is now reviewing their accounts
June 2021 and on Centre Court at Wimbledon, the opening match is about to begin after a two-year Covid-enforced hiatus for the tennis tournament. But first, some VIP guests are introduced to the spectators.
‘Throughout this coming fortnight, the club’s chairman has invited to the Royal Box individuals and representatives of organisations that have contributed so much in the nation’s response to the pandemic and who have helped to make this Wimbledon possible,’ the announcer tells the capacity crowd.
‘Today, they include leaders who have developed the anti-Covid vaccines . . .’ He is interrupted by cheers and sustained applause, during which Professor Sarah Gilbert, a leader of the team behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, remains seated and nods gravely in acknowledgement.
‘NHS staff . . .’ the announcer continues, prompting more cheering and applause, which becomes a standing ovation.
‘And, finally,’ he enthuses, ‘he was a national inspiration who raised £33 million for the NHS when he challenged himself to walk 100 laps of his garden as he approached his 100th birthday. He sadly passed away in February this year. But we are delighted to have with us today one of the daughters of Captain Sir Tom Moore.’
With this, up jumps a jolly, middle-aged woman from her front-row seat in the Royal Box, waving and blowing kisses to the ecstatic crowd.
As the applause rolls on, a beaming Hannah Ingram-Moore, now 51, remains standing, waving and air-kissing.
It was a touching moment. But with such great acclaim comes greater scrutiny. And in recent weeks, that scrutiny has become something else: concern, doubt, even suspicion.
Hannah Ingram-Moore, daughter of Captain Sir Tom Moore, waves to cheering crowds on Day 1 of the Wimbledon Championships last year as she received a hero’s welcome in the royal box
Pictured: Captain Sir Tom Moore receives a Knighthood with his family, Benjie Ingram-Moore, Hannah Ingram-Moore and Georgia Ingram-Moore at Windsor Castle, in Windsor, Berkshire
Captain Tom became a global Covid icon through raising his record-breaking total for NHS charities — almost £39 million in the end — in less than a month during the first lockdown.
The Burma Campaign veteran did his laps around the lawn of Mrs Ingram-Moore’s splendid Grade II-listed, 18th-century former rectory, set in several acres in the centre of the picture postcard Bedfordshire village of Marston Moretaine. Captain Tom had lived there since being widowed.
In recognition of his efforts — he also became the oldest person to have a UK Number One hit record — Captain Tom was knighted by the Queen at Windsor.
And when he died in hospital in Bedfordshire a year ago this month, British landmarks were lit up in his honour.
Downing Street lowered its flags to half-mast and Boris Johnson hailed him as ‘a beacon of hope in the world’.
Today, Captain Tom’s legacy lives on in the Captain Tom Foundation (CTF).
The charity, which raises funds for ‘selected charity partners’ that focus on helping the elderly, was incorporated on May 5, 2020, only five days after his epic sponsored walk ended on his birthday.
Its principal founders were Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband, Colin. Mr Ingram-Moore is on the CTF board of trustees, while she was a trustee for little more than a month, last year.
The amazing fundraising effort propelled Sir Captain Tom to superstardom. He was made an honorary colonel and was later knighted by the Queen (pictured) at Windsor Castle
The pair own a business consultancy called the Maytrix Group, which helps businesses become more ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘innovative’.
The CTF’s ‘mission statement’ promises to create ‘a lasting legacy for [Captain Tom’s] substantial fundraising efforts’. Its income — which comes from donations and the sale of Captain Tom-branded merchandise including T-shirts and gin — is separate from the millions raised by the veteran.
Very laudable. But there is a problem. Or rather, several problems, aside from the initial social media backlash which suggested that Captain Tom’s family were not only shaping but cashing in on his heroics. Now, other issues are emerging.
This month, The Charity Commission — the sector’s watchdog —received the first report of the trustees and audited financial statements of the CTF. It concerns activities in the period between incorporation and May 31, 2021.
The CTF accounts showed that more money — £162,000 — was spent in the first year on management and administration than on donations to good causes. More than £50,000 of those non-charitable outgoings were paid to companies run by the Ingram-Moores.
Three statutory watchdogs, including The Charity Commission, are or have been investigating the manner in which the CTF was set up and run.
And the Mail can reveal that on no fewer than five occasions, Companies House — the official registrar of companies in the UK — has begun proceedings to dissolve Maytrix Group, the Ingram-Moores’ main business vehicle.
The Ingram-Moores have denied any wrongdoing and The Charity Commission has not yet concluded its investigation.
Pictured: Hannah Ingram-Moore, daughter of Captain Sir Tom Moore, poses for a photograph in front of the sign marking the path named in her father’s honour in Alrewas, Staffordshire
The Captain Tom Foundation reportedly tried to appoint Hannah Ingram-Moore (pictured together) as its CEO on a salary of £150,000 but she reportedly decided not to pursue the role
On Saturday, it was reported that the Foundation had tried to appoint Mrs Ingram-Moore as its CEO on a £150,000 salary — similar to that of the head of the RSPCA, which has an income 100 times higher than that of the CTF.
The proposal was allegedly made by the trustees without a recruitment campaign or competition.
In response, the Foundation said that during discussions with The Charity Commission, Mrs Ingram-Moore herself ‘took the decision that the CTF chief executive’s role was not something she wished to pursue’.
Instead, she decided to take the post for an interim nine-month period from August 2021. The CTF ‘categorically denied’ that the salary Mrs Ingram-Moore was granted for this role was ‘six figures’.
The Mail has investigated the claims and the audit trail. At best, the CTF seems to have spent a good deal of its formative period in a state of administrative confusion.
At worst, there are potential conflicts of interest and a number of questions that remain unanswered.
The Mail has also visited Marston Moretaine and talked to villagers. Many are still fiercely loyal to their resident celebrities, but there are dissenting voices.
‘The feeling among some here is that Hannah has milked Tom’s story for all it’s worth,’ one villager told the Mail this week.
Captain Tom’s family (pictured on the day the veteran was knighted) are building an extension at the home with a toilet, kitchen and patio that will ‘mostly’ be used for charity purposes
So what is happening to Captain Tom’s legacy — and can the situation be rescued?
The Ingram-Moores, who have two teenage children, have lived in the red-brick rectory at Marston Moretaine since 2007, when they bought it for a reported £1.18 million.
It is fair to say they have thrown themselves into village life, rather in the manner of local gentry. The village fete has been held in their walled garden. Their daughter was the first ‘live baby Jesus’ displayed in the crib scene outside the parish church, according to one source.
Another, a district councillor, told the Mail that Maytrix sponsored a village flower-planter.
Feelings were certainly running high in the local pub, The Bell, and the Mail’s reporter was asked to leave. But some locals were willing to discuss Hannah Ingram-Moore and the Captain Tom phenomenon.
Louise Pauly, a teaching assistant, who had helped to open cards and gifts sent to Captain Tom, was very positive. ‘Everyone knows the family do nothing but good,’ she said.
‘The Foundation has only been going for a year and they had to release their figures. The how, what and why [the money was spent] hasn’t been released. It has made everyone (think) the worst.’
She said Mrs Ingram-Moore was ‘upset’ by social media trolling after the release of the accounts.
The foundation was set up in the wake of Captain Tom’s fundraising. The WWII veteran (pictured) set a challenge to walk 100 lengths of his garden at his home in Bedfordshire
‘There are a lot of comments saying “Hannah forced (her father) into it”. But I knew Tom very well. [The fundraising] gave him his whole life back. I had never seen him so happy.’
Another ‘former friend’ of the Ingram-Moore family, who didn’t want to be identified, had rather more mixed feelings.
‘I don’t think [the family] had any idea [the fundraiser] would be as big as it was,’ she said. ‘Hannah did have a lot of support when Captain Tom was doing it.
But some villagers didn’t really like her, probably because they were jealous. They live in a big house and there were a lot of snide comments, such as “they think they can do what they like”.’
She added: ‘When I knew her she was very welcoming, but [since becoming famous] she has changed. Someone in the village said the other day, “she’s like a celebrity now and I think it’s gone to her head”.
‘I don’t know what I feel [about Hannah] now. Tom was a very down- to-earth chap. I think he would be looking down now and be horrified.’
In an interview this month, Mrs Ingram-Moore admitted that at the start of lockdown she and her husband’s financial outlook had been bleak. ‘He sat outside genuinely worried about our financial future,’ she said.
‘The entire pipeline for our business over the next 18 months had been wiped clean overnight [by Covid]. We were worried about how we would sustain our workers, my father and the children.’
Captain Sir Tom Moore (pictured) raised close to an incredible £40million for the NHS by walking laps around his garden in Bedfordshire during the Covid pandemic in 2020
Of course, the sponsored walk was not set up as a way out of this cashflow crisis. But the idea — 100 laps, ahead of his 100th birthday — was not Captain Tom’s but Mr Ingram-Smith’s.
The 64-year-old is an experienced businessman. According to Companies House, he is or has been a director of 51 firms.
It was his wife who then suggested a £1,000 target and sent out a press release to local media.
Once Captain Tom’s campaign gained traction — first in the local, then national, then international media — the Ingram-Moores ran it in a robust fashion.
A fence was soon erected around the property to keep out prying eyes, thanks to Nick Knowles, star of the TV show DIY SOS.
And it was Knowles’s PR adviser who put the family in touch with the London media lawyers Schillings, who agreed to give the family free advice.
Mrs Ingram-Moore then became the family’s public face for the vast majority of interviews granted.
But even at that initirial stage there was a backlash. Eyebrows were raised when the Ingram-Moores took Captain Tom on holiday to Barbados in December 2020.
Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore, grandson Benji and granddaughter Georgia outside his home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, as the family joined in with a nationwide clap in honour of the 100-year-old charity fundraiser who died in February last year
They had broken no Covid travel rules and were flown there as guests of BA and Visit Barbados, but the trip was made amid some secrecy.
Mrs Ingram-Moore later defended the holiday by saying that a visit to the Caribbean was one of the ambitions on her father’s ‘bucket list’. He died some weeks later, after contracting Covid.
Back in Marston Moretaine, the word is that the Ingram-Moores are doing very well again.
Locals have noticed what appears to be a new hot tub and extensive landscaping of the gardens.
And last August, Mr Ingram-Moore, on behalf of Maytrix, applied for planning permission to build a ‘small-scale detached single-storey building’ in their back garden for use by the family and the CTF — the cost of all of which came from family, not CTF, funds, Mrs Ingram-Moore has said — on the site of an old tennis court at the back of the rectory.
The Ingram-Moores said it would be obscured from their house by a 1.8 metre laurel hedge. But it is not obscured from their neighbours’ homes, because a leylandii hedge at the boundary was removed and replaced by a fence last summer.
Construction has now been halted by the council with the building still a shell, say local sources, because of concerns that the original planning conditions were not followed.
Barry Shaw, 72, lives the other side of the boundary fence with his wife. He said: ‘We were asked [by a letter from the council] in August 2021 if we had any objections to the building.
‘Unfortunately, we were away in Spain and by the time we got back, the time [to object] had elapsed.
‘We are now in dialogue with the council. If you look at the building, it’s the other side of the fence [from his garden] and they have several acres of land.
‘It could have gone up to 100 metres back and would then be pretty much out of our sight.
‘Planning permission was given for an L-shaped building. But it’s U-shaped and 50 per cent bigger.’
Mr Shaw, who used to chat over the fence with Captain Tom, said he is upset that the Ingram-Moores never spoke to him or his wife about the plans.
The CTF accounts show that £37,942 was paid to Maytrix Group Ltd, ‘a company under the joint control of D.C. Ingram-Moore and H. Ingram-Moore’.
They stated that this related to fundraising costs that ‘were initially funded by Maytrix Group Ltd on behalf of the charity, and reimbursed when sufficient funds were available.’
Maytrix has a chequered history, the Mail can reveal. Records show that on five occasions in the past decade, Companies House has begun compulsory strike-off proceedings that could have led to its dissolution. This was because of late filing of returns, for which the directors are responsible.
The first time was in 2013; the latest was started on August 10 last year. All the actions against Maytrix were eventually discontinued, although fines were imposed the Mail understands.
A Companies House source said this suggested ‘a slightly haphazard approach to their administration’.
The Mail has approached Maytrix Group for comment on the issue but has received no response. The main question for supporters, though, is: has Captain Tom’s legacy been tarnished by all this?
Two watchdogs, the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Fundraising Regulator, say their inquiries into the CTF have now been resolved or closed.
Yesterday, a Charity Commission spokesman said: ‘We have been in ongoing contact with the trustees of the Captain Tom Foundation on its set-up and governance arrangements and as part of this work will now assess the charity’s recently submitted accounts.’
The spokesman confirmed that last March the watchdog opened a ‘regulatory compliance case’, the first step in a formal process for investigating concerns.
There are questions still to be answered about how the CTF is run. Some of the criticism is perhaps misplaced. Most start-ups incur a higher proportion of costs spent on overheads in their first year.
The charity has also indicated that donations of more than £1 million will appear in next year’s accounts. If so, that will go some way towards repairing the PR damage that its first years of operations has inflicted on a noble legacy.
Special reporting: Stephanie Condron and Simon Trump
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