Alan Edward Higgs was a businessman who became a multimillionaire mainly from his house building business in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

, as well as from other businesses in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He died in 1979, and because he thought that inherited wealth did more harm than good, he made provision for a charity to be created after his death to help deprived children from

and nearby localities.

Alan Edward Higgs Charity

The Alan Edward Higgs Charity (sometimes incorrectly called the Alan Higgs Trust) benefited from Higgs's entire estate of approximately £26 million. It was set up specifically to help deprived children from Coventry and within 25 miles of Coventry. Higgs's son Derek Higgs, who was knighted in 2004, and his daughter became the trustees. The charity has given millions of pounds to good causes over the years. It gave the money to build The Alan Higgs Centre, a leisure centre in southeast Coventry, and partly owned the

Ricoh Arena The Coventry Building Society Arena (often shortened to the CBS Arena or just simply Coventry Arena, and formerly known as the Ricoh Arena) is a complex in Coventry, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currently home to footb ...

References

1979 deaths English businesspeople English philanthropists Year of birth missing {{philanthropist-stub