The Fred and Ann Green Legacy

Sadly, their happiness was marred on 2 January 1943 by a tragic accident when Alan, then 15, was knocked from his new bicycle by a tram in Bank Street, not far from his father’s shop. Alan died at the scene, leaving Fred and Ann without their beloved only son and potential heir to their business.

In the following years Fred and Ann threw their energies into their business, becoming especially renowned for their succulent pork pies. This reputation resulted on one occasion in a stroke of luck for Montagu Hospital. Fred had a regular Christmastime order from a local public house, the Montagu Arms, for a giant pork pie to be cut and handed out as a treat to customers. The pie was made as usual but Fred, unable to deliver it himself, left a note on the pie “Deliver to Montagu”. The deliverer misunderstood the instruction and, to her delight and amazement, handed the pie over to Montagu Hospital’s Matron. Her message of thanks to Fred for his generous Christmas gift for her patients was so effusive that Fred hadn’t the heart to tell her of the error – and for years thereafter Montagu Hospital was the recipient of a splendid Christmas pork pie!

In the 1950s an organisation named Associated Dairies and Farm Foods was seeking successful small businesses to add to its portfolio, and in 1958 offered to buy Fred’s business. Both Fred and Ann were in their 50s and well-off, but with no family to carry on the business, decided to sell. Fred was appointed to the Board of the parent company, which in due course became ASDA, one of the UK’s big five supermarkets. Asthe company grew, so did Fred’s fortune; the decision to sell had made Fred a wealthy man. He and Ann were popular members of the social scene in Mexborough and Fred became Chairman of the local cricket club. After Ann died in 1980, Fred continued to live at their house, 92 Adwick Road, directly opposite Montagu Hospital. In 1982 he donated £150,000 towards Doncaster Royal Infirmary’s Children’s Ward.

Fred and Ann Green’s munificent legacy has enabled the Trust to provide many services and facilities that would not have been possible without it. The shuttle buses connecting the three hospitals, the new Eye Department at DRI, the Rehabilitation Department at Montagu Hospital and numerous other projects all owe some or all of their existence to the bequest, born out of a tragedy many years earlier. Montagu Hospital’s Fred and Ann Green Memorial Garden was opened in 2001.