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

Captain Sir Tom Moore's 2020 bid to walk 100 laps of his front garden in Marston Moretaine before his 100th birthday has gone down in pandemic history. But the charity set up by his family in his honour is no longer taking donations.

With the Captain Tom Foundation the subject of a Charity Commission inquiry, the BBC looks at the legacy of the man who won the nation's hearts with a humble fundraising quest.

Capt Sir Tom was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in 1920. He served in India and Myanmar - then Burma - during World War Two.

Early in April 2020, as the world was adjusting to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Capt Sir Tom said he wanted to complete 100 laps of his patio before his 100th birthday at the end of that month, in an bid to raise £1,000 for the NHS.

At the time, the NHS was under severe pressure dealing with the unknown. The nation was plunged into lockdown.

But a determined old man and his walking frame captured a moment in time - and people from all over the world dug deep.

Capt Sir Tom 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.

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.

His 100th birthday on 30 April 2020 was marked with an RAF flypast, personal birthday greetings from the Queen and the 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.

• BBC Sounds: Hear the Captain Tom story from start to finish

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 2021.

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

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", including the Florence Nightingale Hospice in Buckinghamshire, the Willen Hospice in Milton Keynes and the mental health charity, Mind.

But in February 2022, the Charity Commission announced it would be reviewing the accounts of the foundation.

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.

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

The financial statement also showed reimbursement costs of £16,097 paid to Club Nook Limited - a company run by Ms Ingram-Moore, set up shortly before the formation of the charity.

In June 2022, the Commission launched an inquiry into the foundation and its governance, amid concerns his family may have profited from using his name.

A BBC Newsnight investigation in August 2023 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 - not to the foundation.

She posted a statement showing that the watchdog's intervention into the foundation had had a "massive adverse impact" on fundraising.

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 - reportedly £800,000 - at her father's request.

There was no suggestion that she has acted illegally.

In July 2024, before the inquiry into the Captain Tom Foundation concluded, both Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin were disqualified from being charity trustees by the Charity Commission.

A statement from the family said they would not appeal the decision but they "fundamentally disagree with" the findings.

In November 2024, the results of a Charity Commission inquiry into the foundation said Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband displayed a "pattern of behaviour" in which they benefitted personally from the Captain Tom Foundation and people "would understandably feel misled".

Amongst the findings were that the family refused to donate any of the money received from his three-book deal.

Club Nook was paid an advance of £1.47m for the books, and the publisher was told part would be used to set up and fund the foundation - but to date it has not received any money.

The commission's chief executive David Holdsworth said the charity set up in Capt Sir Tom's name "has not lived up to that legacy of others before self" adding that "together the failings amount to misconduct and-or mismanagement".

The commission added that it had not seen evidence of any crime being committed.

In July 2023 the charity announced that it was not actively seeking donations or making payments, but it has not been closed down.

At a planning appeal 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.

In July 2023, 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 Captain Tom Building - originally approved for the use of the 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 were turned down by Central Bedfordshire Council in November 2022 and a demolition order was issued.

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

On 7 November, the Planning Inspectorate announced it had dismissed the appeal saying the "suggested public benefit would not outweigh the great weight to be given to the harm to the heritage asset".

The family did not appeal this decision and had to comply with the existing demolition order, which meant that the spa had to come down by 7 February 2024.

On 30 January scaffolders arrived at the site and the building was fully removed by the deadline date.

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

The Charity Commission inquiry found the couple failed to consult the trustees about the spa complex, which suggested "they were using the charity and its name inappropriately for their private benefit".

In April 2024 the family home was put up for sale for £2.25m and had not been sold by the time the commission's results were published.

The £38m gained from Capt Sir 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" 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."

It 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".

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