William Edward David Allen | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament forBelfast West | |
| In office 30 May 1929 – 7 October 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Lynn |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Browne |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 January 1901 |
| Died | 18 September 1973(1973-09-18) (aged 72) |
| Party | New Party (since 1931) |
| Other political affiliations | Unionist (1922–1931) |
| Spouse | Paula Gellibrand |
| Alma mater | Eton College |
William Edward David AllenOBE (6 January 1901 – 18 September 1973) was a British scholar, Foreign Service officer, fascist politician and businessman, best known as a historian of theSouth Caucasus—notablyGeorgia.
Born into, on his father's side, anUlster-Scots family in London and brought up inHertfordshire, he was educated atEton College (1914–1918), where he began to learnRussian andTurkish. He published his first book,The Turks in Europe, when he was eighteen.[1] He was a special correspondent forThe Morning Post during theGreco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and theRif War (1925).
In the pre-Second World War years, he travelled a lot and conducted extensive research on the history of the peoples of theCaucasus andAnatolia. In 1930, along withSir Oliver Wardrop, he founded the Georgian Historical Society; the Society published its own journal,Georgica, dedicated toKartvelian studies.
His mother financed his personal enterprises until around 1935, and also provided a home at Commonwood House, Chipperfield, Hertfordshire, where he and his brothers could bring their guests at weekends: in Allen's case, he wrote later, these would include "bizarre intellectuals, Caucasian philologists and exiled national leaders from the remoter parts of Central Asia".[1]
In early 1935, he was sent byOswald Mosley withJ. F. C. Fuller toNazi Germany on aBritish Union of Fascists mission to study the organisation of theNazi Party.[2]
In 1940–1, he accompaniedOrde Wingate on his mission toFascist-occupied Ethiopia during theSecond Italo-Ethiopian War, and wrote a book of his experiences calledGuerrilla War in Abyssinia.[3] On 6 March 1941 theRoyal Italian Army division won a victory; what they did know was that a much smaller force opposed them. Wingate set out to fool them in a game of deception: Allen remarked "Perhaps God fights on the side of great hearts and not of the big battalions." The tactic of surprise attacks behind unnerved the garrison at Debra Markos which scarpered in some disorder.[4] He also met and recorded the activities of otherSpecial Operations Executive (SOE) comrades Tony Simonds andBilly Maclean, as remarkable for their informality and eccentricities as their soldierly demeanour.[5]
He wrote with Paul Muratoff (Pavel Muratov) two volumes on the Russian campaign forPenguin Books.John Erickson wrote that they (particularly the second volume) are examples of skilful exploitation of contemporary sources, and even today retain considerable value, including the elucidation of terrain factors.[6]
Allen was an officer withHis Majesty's Diplomatic Service from 1943—notably information counsellor atAnkara between 1947 and 1949—until he stepped down and returned to his nativeUlster in 1949. There, while living nearKillyleagh,County Down, he divided his working time between running the family business (David Allen's, a major bill-posting company) and writing the two major books which he completed during the 1950s:Caucasian Battlefields (1953, withPavel Muratov), andDavid Allens (1957, an account of the business and a collective biography of the Allen family). His last book,Russian Embassies to the Georgian Kings (1589-1605), written with the help of the translator Anthony Mango, was published in two volumes by theHakluyt Society in 1970. He spent his last years living at Whitechurch House, nearCappagh inCounty Waterford, in the south-east of Ireland.
After his death inDublin in 1973, his extensive library of books on Georgia and the Caucasus was estimated at £30,000 (worth between £280,000 and £530,000 in 2014).[1][7] This library is now part of theIndiana University'sLilly Library, which describes it as being 'rich in travel narratives, chronicles and works in linguistics, and [containing] a number of books and some manuscripts in theGeorgian language'.[8]
Allen stood unsuccessfully inFermanagh and Tyrone at the1922 general election,[9] but was elected seven years later on his next attempt, at the1929 general election as theUnionist Member of Parliament (MP) forBelfast West.[10]
He defected from the Unionists in 1931, to join SirOswald Mosley'sNew Party, but did not contest the1931 general election.[10] He was Mosley's right-hand man[11] and publicly defended fascist movements, including Mosley'sBritish Union of Fascists, as "the expression of the European will-to-renewal."[12] He was involved as a prospective principal shareholder in Mosley's plan to build a radio broadcasting station with Nazi funding in 1938 followingDiana Mosley's successful proposal toAdolf Hitler.[13] In the same year, he negotiated the payment of a large sum to Mosley (£120,000 was demanded and £40,000 offered) via the BelgianRexist financier Wryns as part of theransom for the release ofLouis Nathaniel de Rothschild by the Nazis.[13]
It was believed that assertions he was anMI5 informant were false;[14] however, documents now available in the National Archive confirm that he was interviewed by MI5 in 1942 and gave over information regarding the BUF's funding fromFascist Italy.[15]
He was married: (1) from 1922 to 1932, to Lady Phyllis Edith King (1897–1947), the daughter of Lionel Fortescue King, 3rdEarl of Lovelace (1865–1929);[16] (2) from 1932 to 1939, toPaula Gellibrand (1898–1986), once one ofCecil Beaton's favourite models, formerly the wife of the Marquis de Casa Maury; and (3) from 1943, to Nathalie Maximovna (c. 1900–1966).
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBelfast West 1929–1931 | Succeeded by |
