In 1935, aged 18, Greene moved to England to join his brother who was already working in private nursing.
[2][4] In 1943/1944, he was deployed in duties on a hospital ship in the Indian Ocean caring for men with physical and mental trauma.
[7][8][2] In 1964, Greene became the chief nurse for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, a post that entailed responsibility for both general and psychiatric services.
He spent his last day of employment nursing elderly patients in a hospital in Gloucester, thus bringing his career full circle.
[2][9][12] During the 1960s and 1970s, Greene served on the Central Health Services Council and the Standing Nursing and Midwifery Advisory Committee as an adviser to successive governments.
In 1977, he became part of a Department of Health & Social Security working group reviewing functioning of mental illness hospitals.
[13] Greene founded The Association of Chief and Principal Nursing Officers for Mental Hospitals.
[1] Greene married Betty Mary Rickers, a lecturer in biology, at Chatham on 11 July 1942 and they had two sons.