SIR DOUG LEAVES £16M LEGACY
MONEY FOR STAFF IN EX-VILLA OWNER’S WILL
FORMER Aston Villa owner Sir Doug Ellis left a £16 million fortune in his will, including money for his housekeeper.
Sir Doug died at the age of 94 on October 11 last year, and now figures released by the probate office show he left £22,500,000.
But that was reduced to £16,572,000 when his outstanding affairs were settled. Sir Doug, often known by friends, fans and foes alike as ‘Deadly Doug’, had a varied career as a footballer, trainee pilot and a highly successful businessman.
At one time he owned no fewer than 19 companies. He was also a great philanthropist, giving away millions of pounds to causes close to his heart.
Sir Doug made his fortune after setting up Ellis Travel Agency in Birmingham, which pioneered affordable package holidays in the 1950s combining hotels and flights for the first time.
He initially became a director at Birmingham City FC after Aston Villa
rebuffed him. But he finally became a director at Villa Park in 1968, when the club was struggling financially. The team quickly gained promotion, winning the League Cup.
He left his share of the family home in Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, to his widow Heidi, and made a string of generous bequests to family and friends.
Sir Doug set up a trust fund to pay his widow an index-linked £150,000 a year, with capital from the trust – which owns his share in cider makers Aston Manor and Hoho Entertainment – going to son Oliver.
Beneficiaries named separately in the will are widow Heidi, sons Oliver and James, and the children of his son Peter Ellis, who died before his father, Jeanne Maclean and charities.
There are special bequests to two of his favourite sports clubs, too, neither of them related to football. There is £2,000 to Walmley Snooker Club, and another £2,000 to Four Oaks Tennis Club, to pay for a Doug Ellis Cup trophy to be made for both.
Sir Doug also left £10,000 each to his executors Bill Longe, Marion Stringer and David Owen for proving his will.
In addition to that, he left an extra £150,000 to Ms Stringer, another £10,000 to Mr Owen and an extra £20,000 to Mr Longe.
He also remembered his Spanish housekeeper Maria, leaving her £5,000, while he left £120,000 to employee David Fitzpatrick.
Sir Doug was chairman of Aston Villa between 1968 and 1975, and again from 1982 to 2006.
He rebuilt most of the club’s stadium, including the Doug Ellis Stand, and became emeritus president in 2006 when he stepped down because of ill health.
But he sold the club to US billionaire Randy Lerner in 2006 for a reported £63 million.
Sir Doug was awarded the OBE in 2005 for services to football, the same year he faced heart bypass surgery, in the wake of surviving prostate cancer in 2002.
In 2015, he gave more than £1 million to the University of Birmingham School and the Institute of Translational Medicine.
He was first married to Audrey Slater in 1946, with whom he had son Peter. The couple had met in Ceylon, when she cared for him as he suffered malaria, but their marriage ended in divorce.
He married Heidi Kroeger in 1963, with whom he had Oliver and James.
His grandson James Ellis, son of Peter Ellis, is stepping down as chief financial officer of brewery Aston Manor at the end of the summer.