10 Jun 2021
Written By Matthew Eastley

Fr Denis Green – Born 100 years ago on 11 June

For boys attending St Mary’s College in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fr Denis Green was a much-loved priest.

He was born on 11 June 1921 and ordained as a priest on 23 March 1947. He would have been 100 years old today.

Fr Green, who taught French and Latin, was at St Mary’s during the headship of Fr John Gannon and the start of Fr Leo McIver’s ten-year stint between 1952 and 1962.

He was popular with boys for his get-up-and-go approach and used to accompany groups on cycling trips around Kent as well as organising a couple of successful school trips to France.

At a time when the Catholic Church was often accused of austerity, Fr Green was praised for bringing a more modern approach to the priesthood.

Around 1953, he started a prayer-group at St Mary’s which met at lunchtimes. Wilfrid Lockwood recalls Fr Green telling boys that God would judge them less on their sins but more on their character and attitude, a philosophy considered particularly progressive for the time.

Wilfrid added: “He was certainly a good man and regarded as being very fair-minded. He was one of the most genuinely popular teachers and I never heard any criticism of him. He was a born teacher.”

Fr Denis Green. Born 11 June 1921, Died 6 October 2015.