Norman Percy Allen, 1903-1972

Abstract

Norman Percy Allen was born on 5 June 1903, at Wrexham, North Wales, and was the fifth of ten children, seven girls and three boys. His father, Sidney Edward Allen, was an accountant who was employed in the Borough Treasurer’s Department at Wrexham at the time of Norman’s birth. He was one of the large family of a sculptor whose work was mainly on churches and other public buildings. In 1908, he became accountant to the Local Authority at Sheffield and in 1912 was appointed Borough Treasurer of Burton-on-Trent where he lived for the rest of his life. A deeply religious man, he was a very keen, active member of the Congregational Church and a local preacher. His children were all expected to take their part in Church activities and family life was much influenced by his insistence on its principles. This undoubtedly had a strong effect in shaping the characters of all his children. His mother, born Emily Davis, was a kind, intelligent, essentially practical person—very skilled in the domestic arts and an expert dressmaker. Care for her large family, who were very close together in age, left very little time for outside interests other than the Church. Little is known of her family, the remaining members of which are now in Canada. In a large and rather boisterous family, Norman is remembered as the quiet brother who was often absorbed in a book (he was a prolific reader) or in one of his succession of hobbies. He had, however, a keen sense of fun, one expression of which was in the nonsense verse he used to write and illustrate.