Hannah Ingram-Moore, daughter of the late Captain Tom Moore, is selling the family home in Bedfordshire for £2.25 million after being forced to tear down an unauthorized spa she built in the garden. The seven-bed home has been put on the market with a ‘particularly special memory’ of Captain Tom walking 100 laps of the garden to raise a record-breaking sum of almost £40 million for NHS charities during the pandemic. The property’s brochure also highlights that it is owned by the family of Captain Sir Tom Moore, who spent his final years there raising money for the NHS during the Covid pandemic.
However, the sale of the home has been marred by controversy over the unauthorized spa, which was built without the necessary planning permission. Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin lost a court case in October to try and save their £200,000 spa and pool complex, and the building was ordered to be demolished by February 7th.
In an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV, Ms Ingram-Moore admitted that it was a mistake to lodge the planning application under the Captain Tom Foundation, saying the building was merely meant to bear his name. She denied the family had sought to give themselves ‘a little treat’, claiming the paperwork was filed after her father’s death ‘because we wanted it as part of that legacy, and because it was a nice thing to do’.
Despite the controversy over the spa, the family is expected to profit handsomely from the sale of the home. Captain Tom raised £38.9 million for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday in April 2020. He was knighted by the late Queen in the summer of that year and died aged 100 in February 2021.
The sale of the family home is a reminder of the complex legacy of Captain Tom Moore. On the one hand, he was a national hero who raised millions of pounds for the NHS during the pandemic. On the other hand, his family has been criticized for profiting from his name and image in the wake of his death.
