HE WAS a man known for being careful with his money, always first to notice when the price of his favourite food went up by a penny.
But Sid Marshall had a heart of gold and showed compassion to others right up to the end of his days.
His sisters Pauline Thompson and Pearl D'Andilly have now discovered their brother left shares in BP, worth around £50,000, to Dove House Hospice in his will.
"We weren't surprised he would do a thing like this," said Mrs Thompson, 76. "He was that kind of man.
"But it's a good feeling to hand over his shares certificate. It is what Sid wanted to do and we're happy to do it for him."
Mr Marshall, the eldest boy of nine children, was brought up in Lorraine Street, not far from where the hospice was built years later in east Hull, and went on to work for BP.
Living alone in Woodhall Street, east Hull, Mr Marshall loved to travel and always had a suitcase packed and ready to go. A lover of musicals, he would order recordings of American hit shows from a specialist retailer in London's Covent Garden.
His two sisters laughed and joked as they remembered how, despite his generosity to his own family, always slipping notes into birthday and Christmas cards, he kept a tight rein on his finances.
"When we went shopping around Heron, he would always stop and pick something up to show me, saying, 'Pearl, look at this. That's gone up a penny since last week," said Mrs D'Andilly, 81.
"One time, when we were on holiday in Spain with my two children, he said we should go out on a day trip together. We got on this coach and went right to the very last stop. When we finally got to the end, he said we would go for a drink and a sandwich.
"But before we went inside, he told me to be careful as he thought they put the prices up once they realised you were English. I wouldn't have minded, but it was me that was paying."
Mr Marshall's health took a turn for the worse when he began to suffer kidney problems around seven years ago and had a kidney removed at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.
For a while, he rallied, but last year, his health began to decline rapidly. He was taken back to Castle Hill and died just three weeks later on November 28 last year. He was 86.
His family discovered he had bequeathed 11,006 shares to Dove House Hospice, which cares for people battling serious illnesses across Hull and the East Riding.
Although Mr Marshall was never treated at the hospice, his family believe he decided to leave the legacy as a thank-you to staff for caring for his brother Les before his death from cancer around ten years ago.
His sisters have now handed over the shares certificate to the hospice days before the first anniversary of their brother's death.
Mrs Thompson said: "It wasn't a surprise when I found out about his will because I knew he had shares. He had always donated to charity and we think it's a lovely thing he has done.
"We were so poor, growing up in Lorraine Street, so it's nice he was able to go on and do something like this."
