Battle lines have been drawn at a First World War charity after its national committee took more than a year to remove a chairman who shared racist and sexual messages with fellow members.
A whistleblower in the Western Front Association, which promotes commemoration of the conflict, reported the messages being shared by the Lincoln branch chairman in July last year, but, although he was removed as a trustee, his membership was not revoked until October this year.
An internal complaints panel heard that Jonathan D’Hooghe created a WhatsApp group, “Lincoln WFA”, in March 2020. All but two of the 12 people in the group were members of the branch, four of them on the committee.
Martin Gibson, a member of the group, reported 54 messages
