As an alternative to flowers we invite you to make a donation to Southend on Sea Athletic Club. This is a club that was very close to Mary's heart. The money raised will be used to develop coaches at the club. Without qualified and knowledgeable coaches there are no athletes. Mary benefited from great coaching during her sporting life. She also enjoyed coaching too; it is where the sporting journey begins.

Mary's Obituary

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our wonderful Mum Mary Green. She died peacefully at home on Thursday April 7th with her two sons David and Michael at her bedside. She was 78 years old. Along with her two sons she leaves behind 5 much loved grandchildren.

Sport played a huge part in Mary’s life. It was clear from an early age that Mary had talent. At junior school she would beat all the boys in sprint races. A hint of what was to come.

She represented Norfolk in both athletics and hockey. Mary was also in the school teams for netball, rounders and tennis.

Despite suffering a broken leg and a long spell in hospital after being run over she managed to compete for Norfolk 5 times in the English Schools Championships. She won it twice, the first time over 150 yards and the second time over 880yards

Mary was not only winning races she was also winning admiring glances from a middle-distance runner from Manchester Andy Green. Romance blossomed and they were married in August 1965.

Mary’s favourite race was the 400m. She represented Great Britain for the first time in 1963 in a match against the USA. She went on to run for GB on several occasions. She won the Southern counties championship on 3 occasions. Significantly in 1968 she won it in the Olympic qualifying time.

1968 would be a big year for Mary. Amazingly she finished 11th in the National Cross-Country Championships in Coventry. During the summer she qualified for the Mexico Olympics at the AAA Championships an achievement made even sweeter by the fact her brother Mike Tagg also qualified in the 10,000m. Their parents Eric and Violet were bursting with pride.

Mary ran well in the 1968 Mexico Olympics. She got through the first round and made the semi final. They didn’t have fastest losers in those days so despite running the 5th fastest time out of all the semi finalists she missed out on the final. They also didn’t have women’s 4x400m an event the GB team would have shined.

Mary’s serious athletic career ended after the Olympics with David being born in 1969 and Michael in 1971. A persistent achilles injury would also hinder Mary’s athletics future

Mary helped found Castle Point Joggers the aim being to take running to the masses. In those days running was still considered a niche thing to do. The club had many successful outings at the Sunday Times fun run.

The family joined Southend Athletic Club in the early 1980’s. All four of us competed but Mary’s focus was on coaching. Tuesday nights were a highlight of the week.

Mary was also heavily involved in the Southend 10k and an annual Barn Dance. Lots of late nights and effort went into making these events successful. They were a source of much needed funds for the club.

Mary became President of the Athletic Club in 1991 only retiring due to ill health in 2020

We cannot ignore Mary’s teaching career. She studied Physical Education at Dartford college. In 1964 at the age of 21 she started teaching at Southend High School for Girls. She loved teaching PE and had many happy years at Southend High reluctantly retiring at the age of 65.

In later life Mary kept herself fit and well making good use of their local David Lloyd, keeping an immaculate garden, traveling and going on several walking holidays. She took great pride in watching her 2 boys take part in bike races and grandchildren playing football, tennis and dancing.

Unfortunately, in Sept 2019 Mary’s battle with mental illness began. Mary would be one of the unlucky patients who did not respond to treatment. It was a sad end to what was a fantastic and full life.