WHEN Captain Tom Moore vowed to walk 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday in April 2020, daughter Hannah sent a press release to the local paper, hoping to raise £1,000 for charity.
But the sponsored walk made the hero war veteran a global superstar and raised £38.9million for NHS charities in the midst of the pandemic.
For practically every interview, Hannah, 53, was by her father’s side and, off-camera, she and husband Colin took the reins as the donations, media requests and letters from fans spun out of control.
Now the couple have been ordered to tear down an unauthorised building after plans for a pool complex were rejected.
They originally told planners they wanted an office for the charity set up in Hannah's father’s name at their £1.2million Bedfordshire home.
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However, they instead built a 50ft by 20ft pool house with changing rooms, toilets and showers.
Meanwhile, the Captain Tom Foundation is no longer receiving donations amid an ongoing investigation by the Charity Commission.
A spokesperson said: "At this moment in time, the sole focus of The Captain Tom Foundation is to ensure that it cooperates fully with the ongoing Statutory Inquiry by the Charity Commission.
"As a result, The Captain Tom Foundation is not presently actively seeking any funding from donors."
Here we look at the story of Hannah Ingram-Moore, whose own website describes her as “one of Britain’s leading businesswomen”.
Captain Tom passed away in February 2021, after a bout of pneumonia meant he was admitted to hospital, where he contracted Covid.
Hannah is currently listed as the director of five companies, according to Companies House, although she no longer has a role in the Captain Tom Foundation.
Her website - with the tagline "Business. Family. Leader" - lists her as a public speaker, author and podcaster, alongside her role as an “Executive Life Coach.”
She charges £375 for 1.5 hours - £250 an hour - or £725 for 3 sessions of 60 minutes.
"Working with Hannah allows you to reach the goals, objectives, and vision you have for your life," the site boasts.
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Hannah, who wrote her dad’s autobiography with him, is now writing a book to tell "my side of the story - the highs and lows" which the latest post on her site says she is 'days away' from completing.
Happy childhood
War hero Tom left the Army in 1945, working at the family building business in his native Yorkshire before it failed.
This led him into sales jobs in Kent and a management role at a concrete company in Cambridgeshire, at which he led a management buyout.
Hannah and older sister Lucy Teixeira were the product of Tom’s second marriage to work colleague Pamela, who he wed after first wife Billie left him for a psychiatrist.
Tom was older than his wife, and was nearly 50 when Lucy was born, but the girls had an idyllic upbringing, with loving parents who never argued.
Hannah proved something of a go-getter after leaving school, becoming a successful brand manager working with the likes of Gap, Fortnum & Mason, Liberty London and Swatch Group, often racking up over a million air miles a year.
She married financier and property entrepreneur Colin Ingram - also known as David - and they have two children, Benji, 18, and 13-year-old Georgia.
Moving dad in
The couple’s high-flying careers meant they were often away from home but when Hannah’s mum Pamela, who had been suffering from dementia, died in 2006, leaving 86-year-old Tom devastated, they decided to make a change to their lifestyle.
The couple set up their own business consultancy firm, Maytrix, and looked for a house big enough to double as a home and office, with room for Tom to live with them.
Georgia, their second child, was born just after they all moved into the Old Rectory.
Still active in his eighties, Tom was frustrated that he couldn’t get a job and told Hannah he felt invisible to the world.
“People had started to look through me, past me,” he said. “But I’ve come here and you’ve given me my visibility back.”
Hannah told The Times the move gave him a new lease of life.
“He’d got purpose. Every day he got up, fed the dogs, let the dogs out, cut the grass, made things in his workshop, fixed things, chopped wood," she said.
Every week, he cooked a Sunday roast and the family would eat together and chat.
“It sounds ridiculous, we weren’t the Brady Bunch, but we didn’t argue,” Hannah added.
The kids loved having granddad on tap with Benji telling ITV: “One of the best things about living with my granddad was our friendly banter about really small daily amenities.
“Our rooms were next to each other and we were always the last ones up so we’d go into each other’s rooms each night to battle over who would put the alarm on for the morning.
“He was like a second father to me and taught me so much. I always remember him saying that if you can make someone smile each day then you’ve left a good mark on the day. He certainly did that.”
Georgia added: “We spent so much time together, playing with the dogs and growing things in the greenhouse.
“We would read, colour, stamp and stick together. I loved spending time with him because he was so kind and patient with me as the youngest in the family!”
Raising £38.9million
When the first pandemic lockdown was imposed, in March 2020, the family were planning a party to mark Tom’s 100th birthday, a month later.
Instead Colin suggested the war veteran, who was recovering from a fall at home, do 100 laps of the garden in 100 days, with Maytrix donating £1 a lap to charity.
Hannah decided to send a press release to the local newspaper and set up a Just Giving page with a target of £1,000 to go to NHS charities, and Benji decided to film his grandad’s efforts to post on Twitter.
But, when BBC Breakfast picked up the story, the fund leapt to £200,000 overnight and the family began to be besieged with requests for interviews.
While Hannah steered her hard of hearing dad through up to 35 chats a day with outlets around the world, Colin faced 1.5million emails in ten days and Benji was on gate duty outside the house, fielding enquiries.
While Tom showed his indomitable spirit with his daily lap, the family received calls from the office of the US president, from the director-general of the United Nations, the head of the World Health Organisation and numerous other heads of state and political leaders.
On his 100th birthday, Tom received over 250,000 birthday cards and gifts and a sorting centre had to be set up in the hall of Benji’s school, manned by volunteers.
The family began to feel besieged and overwhelmed by their sudden fame, and friends reached out to Nick Knowles, of the TV show DIY SOS, who helped to erect a high fence around the house.
And, while Tom became the sweetheart of the nation, even getting a Knighthood from the Queen, not all the reaction was positive.
Heartless trolls posted messages wishing Tom would break his leg, and Hannah was accused of forcing her dad to make his walks and of using the money for her own ends.
“I couldn’t tell him. I think it would have broken his heart, honestly, if we’d said to him, people are hating us,” she told BBC News.
“Because how do you rationalise to a 100-year-old man that something so incredibly good can attract such horror? So we contained it within the four of us and we said we wouldn’t play to … that vile minority, we wouldn’t play to them.”
Rocky foundation
In May 2020, Hannah and Colin set up the Captain Tom Foundation, which they said would lead the fight for “a world without ageism” and “supporting our older population”. Hospices, mental health and nursing charities are among those to be supported.
The foundation was criticised for selling merchandise on its website — including T-shirts, roses and gin — with a proportion of the profits going to charity.
In May 2022, a gin named in Tom's honour was withdrawn from the site after the Charity Commission ruled it breached charity law. It was revealed that only £30 of the £100 price tag went to the foundation.
The Commission also stepped in to block the appointment of Hannah as CEO of the foundation, after they proposed a pay packet in the region of £150,000 - representing 13.68 per cent of the charity’s total first-year income.
She stepped down from the “interim” role in March 2021, after receiving a lesser salary of £85,000.
As the foundation she once fronted faces investigation, and she begins the fight to save the swimming pool and spa building in her luxury home, she will no doubt be turning to her dad’s famous positivity to help her through her darkest hour.
After all, as he would say: “Tomorrow will be a good day.”
