It’s now just over four-and-a-half years since Captain Sir Tom Moore completed one of the greatest fundraising feats the world has ever seen.
The war veteran’s grit and determination to walk 100 laps of his back garden during the depths of lockdown touched the nation’s hearts, and pockets, raising £39m for NHS charities.
A year later, on his death, with the country gripped by mourning, former health secretary Matt Hancock called on the UK to “mark the memory” of Britain’s Covid hero as calls grew for a statue.
But a visit to the now-famed location of the incredible fundraiser – Captain Tom’s Old Rectory home in the Bedfordshire village of Marston Moretaine – gives little clue his incredible achievement ever took place.
It’s a sorrowful sign of the tarnished legacy of the man, say villagers, with a long-awaited report, published on Thursday, finding his family had personally benefitted from a charity set up in his name.
A firm run by his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and son-in-law Colin Ingram-Moore was paid almost £1.5m for three of his books, including his best-selling autobiography, the Charity Commission found.
The couple also “inappropriately for private benefit” used the charity name to apply for planning permission for a foundation building in the back garden of the gated home, which was subsequently built outside the permit, and included a spa pool and home cinema.
The Ingram-Moores, who have now placed the family home up for sale, were ordered to demolish the building this year amid anger in the village.
“We were quite proud of what Captain Tom did, it put us on the map,” said Ian Knight, a 51-year-old labourer who has lived in the village for 45 years.
“But now we are quite embarrassed with what’s happened since and will be glad when they are gone. Out of mind and out of sight.”
Mr Knight had hoped for a plaque to commemorate Captain Tom in the centre to the village with a population of just over 6,000.
But the only signs within sight of the boundary walls and fences of the family home are a care home advertisement banner and a large warning poster detering people from using drones over the property.
At Millbrook railway station, a mile away, there is a commemorative bench, while a statue also stands inside Chapel Allerton Hospital in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Captain Tom’s country of birth some 160 miles away.
“People round here really want to forget about it,” said Mr Knight.
“It’s sad really. What he did was brilliant, helping so many people get through the Covid lockdown, and he’s had nothing to do with anything since. But we’ve had two to three years of this, and people want to move on.”
Although the unauthorised building no longer stands in the family home’s back garden – it was pulled down in February – nothing much appears to have changed in the village from nine months ago.
On the afternoon before the Charity Commission report is published, parents sit in their cars, out of the cold, as they wait for their children to come out of the local primary school, while a few early drinkers can be seen inside The Bell pub.
Christmas fairy lights are already up in some of the windows.
Michael Fisher, 50, lives in a terraced home backing onto Captain Tom’s back garden. He remembers the fundraiser completing the laps, and then watching it on his television in his home.
“They [the family] keep themselves to themselves – I’ve only seen them a couple of times, and that might have actually been on the news,” he said.
“I think they will want to move on now with all the backlash they have had, they’re not shown in the same light as before, when Captain Tom raised all that money from his garden.
“It’s a shame really because this is all nothing to do with him…. it’s his legacy damaged.”
A couple living close, who asked not to be named, said the family suffered “Lord of the Manor syndrome”.
“I always felt quite sorry for Hannah, especially, because she lost friends. We used to go to the same hairdressers, she doesn’t go anymore – and that’s why they are probably moving,” the woman said.
”But they brought it on themselves,” she added.
The man, who said the bringing down of the foundation building brought relief, said: “I don’t think they give two hoots about the village quite honestly. Doesn’t matter if they are popular or unpopular, does it? But it’s now water under the bridge.”
The family have sympathy in some quarters.
Neighbour Mark Brighton, 60, said: “They did what they did and paid the price – people are now going a bit over the top on it now.
“The lessons have been learned. People thought they believed they could get away it [planning for the Captain Tom Foundation building] because they were wealthy.
“I’m not surprised they are wanting to move on and away.”
The Independent approached Hannah Ingram-Moore for comment.
Responding to the Charity Commission report, the Ingram-Moores said the probe had been “unjust and excessive”.
They said: “We remain dedicated to upholding Captain Sir Tom’s legacy and want the public to know, that there has never been any misappropriation of funds or unauthorised payments from the charity’s bank account, by any member of our family.”
