Findings
| When | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Guitarist Pete Townshend received a police caution after admitting that he had used his credit card to access a website containing child-abuse images. Police found no downloaded images on his computer and did not charge him with possessing them. Townshend said he had accessed the site as research for a campaign against child pornography, but he accepted the caution and was placed on the UK sex-offenders register for five years. | Source |
| Drummer Keith Moon was violent toward his wife, Kim Kerrigan. She described him becoming violent when other men spoke to her, and the violence and his behaviour (including chasing her with a shotgun) eventually led her to leave him with their daughter in 1973. | Source | |
| 70's | Keith Moon and his friend and Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band musician Vivian Stanshall were known to dress in Nazi SS uniforms as a provocation. The Who's own biography acknowledges that Moon and Stanshall visited a London beer cellar dressed in SS uniforms. It was later described as shock humor rather than evidence that Moon supported Nazism. | Source |
| 1976 | The Who established the Double O charity after Pete Townshend and the band became involved with Erin Pizzey's Chiswick women's refuges, which provided shelter for women escaping domestic violence. Double O subsequently funded projects dealing with domestic violence and sexual abuse as well as other causes. | Source |
| Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have spent decades raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust. The Who's benefit concerts helped fund specialist cancer wards for teenagers, and Daltrey established and curated the Royal Albert Hall concert series. By 2025, the series had raised more than £36 million for young people with cancer. | Source | |
| 1979 | Townshend performed at Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball, donating his performance to the organisation's human-rights fundraising. His participation helped inspire other major musicians to support subsequent Amnesty events. | Source |
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