The daughter instigated it, she employed a young marketing girl who used her contacts to get the ‘story out there’ then once the media outlets picked up on it the marketeer was unceremoniously dumped.
Their business was going down the pan because of the pandemic, from what I read they had no business sales for six months and they were struggling financially so she got the father to ‘walk’ round his garden for the ‘NHS’ think initially he was going to try to raise £1000 by his next birthday and of course the whole thing went viral.
As always with these things the smart thing to do is follow the money.
There‘s no way this was just a simple altruistic act thought up by a 99 year old former army captain.
“Former University of Northampton student Mrs Souster said she was approached by the family to write the press release, which kick-started the Capt Sir Tom story, before sending it to her list of media contacts.
She also claims to have set up the JustGiving page and managed Capt Sir Tom's account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
However, in June 2020, her services for the Ingram-Moores came to a sudden halt.
"Initially the family were extremely supportive of me and thankful for all that I had done, but for reasons unknown to me, they changed," she wrote on LinkedIn.
A spokesperson for Haymarket PR, the publisher of PRWeek, told the BBC: "In 2020, Hannah Ingram-Moore stated to PRWeek that The Captain Tom Family and its representatives do not give permission for anyone to enter Captain Sir Tom to the PRWeek Awards.
"Consequently, any submissions entered for Capt Sir Tom were removed."
It was after this that Mrs Souster said she "severed ties with the family".
Mrs Souster, who had been entered into five awards with the public relations trade magazine PRWeek, said that "a week later I was told by Hannah Ingram-Moore [Capt Sir Tom's daughter] that I had no right to talk about my work/involvement with the PR".
Daisy Souster says she provided public relations services to the family for the fundraising appeal.
www.bbc.co.uk
Registration of the “Captain Tom” trademark
Only weeks before setting up the Foundation (which was formed as a
charitable company on 5 May 2020 and then
registered as a charity a month later on 5 June 2020), on 24 April 2020, Hannah and Colin set up a family company called Club Nook Limited.
On 18 May 2020
the company applied to register “Captain Tom” as a trademark in a number of classes. The company subsequently applied to register several variations of the trademark. The Charity Commission has cited “a failure to consider intellectual property and trade mark issues when the charity was established” as a key concern in its announcement of the Statutory Inquiry into the Foundation. The question here is whether the charity trustees should have objected to the registration of the brand in order to protect the Foundation.
Again, there is a question to be considered by the Commission as to the extent to which the family might have obtained private benefits from its ownership of the brand, given the high-profile nature of the charity and the strong association of the brand with ‘charity’ in the public mind. However, it has been
reported that Stephen Jones, chair of trustees at the Foundation, said that the Charity Commission was informed about the ownership of the trademarks when the charity was set up. If so, it might be difficult for the Charity Commission at this stage to criticise the charity trustees for failing to consider these issues at the time.
Birketts' experts analyze The Captain Tom Foundation's legal issues, offering charity law solicitor insights on compliance and controversies.
www.birketts.co.uk
This latest incident, however, has identified new ‘red flag’ issues including arrangements between the Foundation and a company linked to the Ingram-Moore family, ongoing anxiety surrounding the trustees’ decision-making processes and governance. In particular, the Commission is concerned that a private company controlled by Hannah and Colin Ingram-Moore applied to trademark variations of the name ‘Captain Tom’ and might have used those trademarks to generate significant profit for the company. That the Foundation failed to challenge this raises questions as to the management of conflicts, trustee benefits, and whether its trustees have acted in the best interests of the charity.
Birketts' experts analyze The Captain Tom Foundation's legal issues, offering charity law solicitor insights on compliance and controversies.
www.birketts.co.uk