Captain Tom’s Family

He was doing a set number every day under the advice of his GP to help his mobility.

That's a very good point, actually: did they ever say how many laps he was reckoned to have done, or was it just that he was doing it?

Either way, it was hardly comparable to the Proclaimers' support-us-by-the-mile sponsored walk!

I doubt he walked up and down a small bit of the garden more than a couple of times for the cameras in any case. People weren't in the frame of mind to question what a PR an adoring daughter said was happening and then it was the kitschy feelgood, 'aww, veterans, daily exercise, sunshine and flowers, isn't it grand?' that caught on when the rest of the world was going to shit.

It’s not about whether you’d want your family to ‘cash in’. It’s about having the legal benefits and reputation of a charity while using said charity for personal gain. Can you not see that?

I have a family member who has the exact personality as hannah
If there is a sniff of being able to take something (normally money) from something,they are all over it
The whole world could say that they are wrong and they'd dig their heels in and double down

In one case,a family friends dd was diagnosed with an illness
This family member was at the front,centre and back of the fundraising for equipment for this child
Purely for the praise and the creaming off a percentage of the money raised

They will never see what they did wrong as they 'deserved' a treat after all their hard work

The other dd did well to stay out of it

Didn’t they pay themselves giant salaries and consultancy fees out of charity funds as well?

I have no issue admitting that but for me its more that he isn't actively on the grift right now. Unlike Hannah.

Her husband seems to escape most of the criticism as well, and I highly doubt that he hasn't been a co-driving force behind all this fiasco from the start.

😂😂 certainly did. And tbh every time I hear Hannah talk earnestly about "my father's last wish" (that coincidentally is also something she would benefit from) I hear Rodney's voice in my head going "cor, mum didn't half have a lot to say on her deathbed"!

Captain Tom was as much on the make as his daughter and it's because people can't admit that to themselves that they focus so much on her.

How can you believe anything that daughters says?! Of course she is pushing the narrative that he wanted them to have the money, and no one can ask him now. But there’s no evidence that he did. Everything about their behaviour; the cracking of funds, building the spa, etc, show that they are a bunch of absolute grifters. I hope the charity regulation authorities are investigating because everything points towards fraud and misappropriation of funds.

Didn't Del Boy keep magically 'remembering' an extraordinary large and varied amount of heartfelt 'last wishes' that their mum had expressed to him on her deathbed, every time he wanted to persuade or emotionally blackmail Rodney into something?!

Yes, I always thought that too. People saw the sudden immense burden on the NHS during a pandemic and they were terrified that it might all just collapse.

They got the wrong end of the stick and believed that they could give money 'to the NHS', so that's what they did - many of them (imho, understandably) out of self-interest - as though it was like a voluntary extra tax to help bring the NHS through an extremely tough time and emerge intact at the end.

Exactly. And why was it your dad's dying wish one of many it seems that you build a spa block in your garden.

I think the whole thing was a massive con from start to finish to be honest. An awful lot of people thought the money was going to the NHS and not NHS charities together which is a completely different entity altogether.

I mean you'd hope so but the fact she went on breakfast telly a couple of weeks ago to promote her new book and instead got her arse handed to her by Judge Rinder, whilst still bleating that they're done nothing wrong and the charity commission doesn't know what they're talking about would suggest otherwise.

She truly does seem to have more front than Blackpool.

I think a lot of it depends on the desirability of the book/item per se, apart from the charity connection.

Take charity Christmas cards sold in high street chain shops for example (as opposed to those sold by the charities themselves): they usually give between 5 and 25% of the proceeds to the charity, BUT people are primarily buying them because they want Christmas cards and they often choose those ones because of the added value to the charity.

Captain Tom seemed a nice enough man right from when he rose to fame (I never knew him, so can't reliably comment on what he was like in reality; although his book contained some horrors)... BUT he was basically just an old man who was famous for a simple one-dimensional gesture; he wasn't David Attenborough or Dick Van Dyke with a long, illustrious career in the public eye.

I can't imagine that anybody bought the book with a genuine desire to learn more about his whole life story on the strength of his very short time in the sun as a really elderly gentleman; it was mainly just filler as an excuse to donate a bit more money to charity. Same with the single, with him mumbling in between Michael Ball singing - I highly doubt that anybody who bought it still has it on their regular playlist to this day. In fact, I bet many who bought it never even played it once.

Just like when they have charity auctions in aid of a very popular good cause and well-off supporters bid and pay £5,000 for a Mars Bar... if you witnessed that and seized on it as a retail business opportunity, now you know the huge 'true market value' of a Mars Bar, but with the money just going to you as a regular person as income, you may be very surprised to be left with 100% of your stock from the cash and carry after a month!!

I doubt the tide will turn for this family.

You’re a parasite who set your dad up in the first place. It all seems very underhanded and manipulative / I can’t see that you’re going to get support from mumsnet Hannah.

It is fair that some of the book money goes to charity and some to the family.
What Capt. Thom said was not that ALL of the book money would go to the charity...so his kids might still be correct in thinking that he wanted them to benefit.
It's pretty usual for a percentage of a book's sales to go to charity.

No one, that I have seen, has ever asked...

If your Dad wanted his family to receive this money was a half share of it given to your sister?

Getting caught out

They’re awful parasites. I don’t know why they’re so determined to keep reminding people of what they’ve done. I think it’s extremely sad that the memory of Captain Tom has been sullied like this to be honest.

This family are grifters. Hannah was loving all the attention and grabbed whatever she could. I agree- they are terrible at interviews and I cannot believe they dont know how the come across.

I feel very sorry for their kids. Imagine having Ingram and her husabnd as role models. The teasing they must get at school must be horriying