Alan Higgs

Alan Edward Higgs was a businessman who became a multimillionaire mainly from his house building business in Coventry, as well as from other businesses in Birmingham, England.{{cite web

|url=http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/search/article/407452/the-mt-interview-matthew-lynn-derek-higgs/

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828182927/http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/search/article/407452/the-mt-interview-matthew-lynn-derek-higgs

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=28 August 2008

|date=1 November 2002

|publisher=Management Today

|title=The MT interview by Matthew Lynn: Derek Higgs

|accessdate=20 October 2007

}} 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 Coventry and nearby localities.{{cite web

|url = http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cms/go/hon-degree/2005/jul-higgs.html

|publisher = University of Bristol

|date = 13 July 2005

|title = Sir Derek Higgs: Doctor of Laws

|accessdate = 20 October 2007}}

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.{{cite news |url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3842018.ece|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100524200200/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3842018.ece|url-status = dead|archive-date = 24 May 2010|title = Sir Derek Higgs|work = The Times |accessdate = 29 April 2008 | location=London | date=30 April 2008}} It was set up specifically to help deprived children from Coventry. Higgs's son Derek Higgs, who was knighted in 2004, and his daughter became the trustees.{{cite news |url = https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/apr/29/allianceleicesterbusiness.banking|title = Sir Derek Higgs dies suddenly aged 64 |work =The Guardian|accessdate = 29 April 2008 | location=London | first=Jill | last=Treanor | date=29 April 2008}}

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,{{cite web

|title = The Alan Higgs Centre

|publisher = RHWL architects

|url = http://www.rhwl.co.uk/project_111.aspx

|accessdate = 20 October 2007

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080105081735/http://www.rhwl.co.uk/project_111.aspx

|archive-date = 5 January 2008

|url-status = dead}} and partly owned the Ricoh Arena.

References

Category:1979 deaths

Category:English businesspeople

Category:English philanthropists

Category:Year of birth missing