It is never too late to become a celebrity, and not even a lockdown can contain the “viral” spread of explosive fame, as amply demonstrated by the recent case of national hero Captain Sir Tom Moore. It all began as the heart-warming story of a near-centenarian going the extra mile or so, in the form of a hundred frame-assisted laps in a walled garden in The Rectory in the village of Marston Moretaine, to support a beleaguered NHS during the first lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic. His efforts raised the formidable sum of £38.9 million for NHS Charities Together- in no time at all.
Things have moved on since the initial outbursts of adulation and the tsunami of donations they inspired. The Captain Tim Foundation has recently closed to further contributions. It would be premature to speculate on the reasons for this as the Charity Commission investigates the matter, but this gives us an opportunity to investigate the circumstances behind the setting up of this immensely successful charity.
Thomas Moore was born to middle-class parents in Keighley, West Yorkshire, on 30 April 1920, attended Keighley Grammar School, and became an apprentice civil engineer before enlisting in the British Army in June 1940. He served with the Royal Armoured Corps in India, Burma, and Sumatra, reaching the temporary rank of captain, and was an instructor at the Armoured Fighting Vehicles School in Bovington, Dorset, when demobilised in October 1946. His civilian career ended as managing director of a concrete products company. In his spare time, he was a motorcycle enthusiast and competitive racer.
The Captain Tom marketing campaign can be considered a stroke of genius. It is reported to have been masterminded by one of his two daughters, Hannah Ingram-Moore, and her chartered accountant husband Charles, both of whom have extensive experience in the corporate sector and co-founded the Maytrix Group, a management consultancy. Captain Tom moved into their mid-Bedfordshire home in 2008, two years after the death of his second wife Pamela, who suffered from dementia.
It appears that Captain Tom wished to thank the NHS for their attentions in treating him for skin cancer and a broken hip. His 73-year-old military rank was resurrected for the purposes of the campaign, and the image of a frail elderly Army veteran, with his service medals pinned to the breast pocket of his jacket, ambling along on a wheeled walking frame, inspired many people desperately seeking a national hero at a time of overwhelming crisis. The ten daily laps, of 25 metres each, began on 6 April 2020 and were completed on 17 April, but an energised Captain Tom continued walking until 30 April. The original target of £1,000 was exceeded in time at all, and the JustGiving platform eventually confirmed the largest total sum raised by a single campaign on its site. The amount raised by more than 1.5 million donors reached £32, 794,701 at midnight on the Captain’s hundredth birthday, topped up by a further £6 million in Gift Aid contributions. The Captain Tom Moore Foundation was set up on 5 May 2020, two weeks after Club Nook Ltd had been incorporated on 24 April 2020 as a private limited company to exploit the many merchandising opportunities looming on the horizon.
Fame arrived at a blistering pace. Captain Tom’s birthday was celebrated by an RAF flypast of a Hurricane and a Spitfire above his home, a unique personal message from the Queen, the postmarking of all Royal Mail letters with a special birthday greeting, and a deluge of birthday cards from his growing army of fans. A timely nomination by Prime Minister Boris Johnson ensured the ultimate accolade of knighthood. The Captain was knighted by the Queen in a special, socially-distanced, open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle on 17 July 2020, which marked her first official appearance since lockdown began. He became first honorary Colonel of the Army Foundation College in Harrogate and also an honorary colonel in the 1st Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment. In a frenzy of naming, Captain Tom featured on buses, a train, a fire and rescue powerboat, and shared his name with various animals. An autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be a Good Day, and four children’s books marked his literary debut. He became the oldest person to produce a No.1 single in the UK charts, with a cover version of You’ll Never Walk Alone with singer Michael Ball. Captain Tom was even awarded a Helen Rollason Award at the 2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony. Captain Sir Tom’s London Dry Gin, a product of Otterbeck Distillery in Skipton, was “inspired by the botanicals that grow with abundance in the hills and dales where he roamed in his youth.”
Captain Tom even managed to embark on a “bucket-list” trip to Barbados, courtesy of British Airways and Visit Barbados, returning to Britain on 6 January. He tested COVID-positive soon after, developed pneumonia, and died at Bedford Hospital on 2 February 2021. His passing was mourned by flags flying at half-mast across the country.
In more recent times, attention has been directed towards the activities of Club Nook Ltd and at the construction of a U-shaped annexe, the Captain Tom Building, in the grounds of the Ingram-Moore family home. This outbuilding was meant to be used as offices and conference facilities to support the charity, but somehow came to include a spa and indoor swimming pool. Upon discovery, Central Bedfordshire Council imposed a demolition order on the building, subject to an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Among other things, charities have stepped in to support cash-strapped public services, such as the NHS, at a time of government spending cuts in an age of austerity. “Advancement of health or the saving of lives” is one of thirteen categories of ‘charitable purpose’ as defined in the Charities Act 2006, which replaced the original four Pemsel ‘heads of charity’ as defined by Lord Justice Macnaughten in 1891. The legal basis for such charity in England can be traced back to the Preamble to the Charitable Uses Act 1601.
All charities in England and Wales with an annual income of £5,000 and above, are registered, unless ‘exempt’ by the Charity Commission. The origins of the commission date back to the Charitable Trusts Act 1853. The Register of Charities was established in its modern form in 1961. The Charity Commission decides what causes can be registered as a public benefit and regulates how charities are run. Altruistic though they might seem, charities have attracted increasing scrutiny in recent years. Quite apart from the fact that charitable efforts may turn out to be ineffective or even prove counter-productive in delivering their services, questions have been raised over disproportionate overhead costs (administrative and executive salaries, marketing expenditure, fundraising activities, conferences), which divert funds away from the causes for which they were originally designed.
The Captain Tom venture was undoubtedly an immense success and the benevolent image of the Army veteran, presented as an “ordinary man”, generated large sums of money in a good cause. The ongoing investigations into his legacy projects will hopefully answer any questions concerning their management and shed light on the inner workings of lucrative charities in the process, hopefully leaving us better equipped for future developments in the sector.
Ashis Banerjee