Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Ten: Captain H. S. Allan, Royal Naval Reserve, latterly Commodore of the P. & O. Fleet

1914-15 Star (S. Lt. H. S. Allan. R.N.R.) British War and Victory Medals (S. Lt. H. S. Allan. R.N.R.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Burma Star, 1 clasp, Pacific; Italy Star; War Medal, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.V.R.; Russia, Empire, Order of St Stanislas, 3rd Class breast badge by Albert Keibel, St Petersburg, 42mm x 42mm, gold and enamel, with double-headed eagle and manufacturer’s mark on reverse and ‘56’ gold mark on eyelet, mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (10) £800-1000

M.I.D. London Gazette 14 November 1944: ‘For gallantry, skill, determination and undaunted devotion to duty during the landing of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy:- Captain Henry Samuel Allen, R.D., R.N.R.’

Reserve Officers Decoration London Gazette 8 November 1935.

Order of St Stanislas, 3rd Class London Gazette 4 February 1916.

Henry Samuel Allen was born in Ayrshire on 13 December 1892, and educated at Ardrossan Academy, Ayrshire. He entered the Mercantile Marine in 1908, as an Apprentice to George Smith & Sons of Glasgow, and served with that company until 1913. He joined the P. & O. Steam Navigation Co. as a Junior Officer in December 1913. On the outbreak of war he was appointed Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve on 30 December 1914. He served in H.M.S. Zaria (M.F.A. Store Carrier) with the Imperial Russian Fleet in the Baltic, January to May 1815; and again in Zaria when she became Depot Ship for the Orkney Islands, Area III, of the Auxiliary Patrol, from May 1915. In command of H.M.S. Mafeking, Motor Drifter, August 1915 to October 1916. Served in the Armed Yachts Ellida, from October 1916, Mingray, from September 1917, and Ceto, from July 1918; these ships served as Auxiliary Patrol group leaders and carried wireless equipment.

Allan was promoted to Lieutenant in December 1924; Lieutenant-Commander in December 1932, Commander in December 1936, and to Captain in June 1942. He was Acting Commodore 1944-46. During World War II he served in H.M.S. St Adrian, Yacht, of the Examination Service, from September 1939; in H.M.S. St George, Training Establishment, Douglas, Isle of Man, from February 1940; H.M.S. Lochinvar, Minesweeping Base, Port Edgar, from September 1940; H.M.S. President, for Special Duties (Convoys), from October 1941; H.M.S. Venture, Parent Ship, Liverpool, for Convoys, from January 1942; H.M.S. Eaglet, Liverpool Base, for Convoys, from July 1942; Fleet School, Largs, for Fleet School Duties, from November 1943; took part in the Normandy and South of France landings in 1944; H.M.S. Adgar, Royal Indian Navy, in command from November 1944; H.M.S. Artifax, British Pacific Fleet, in command from August 1945 to October 1946. Demobilised and placed on Retired List, 1 December 1946.

Allen returned to the P. & O. S.N. Co. in October 1946 as Fleet Commander, and was in command of the P. & O. cargo ship Palana until May 1947, of the steam-ship Strathaird from 1947 to December 1952, and was Commodore of the P. & O. Fleet from December 1951 until his retirement at the end of the following year. Captain Allen died at his home in Hythe on 6 March 1979, at the age of 86. His obituary described him as ‘one of the most famous P. & O. captains,’ who was ‘famous for his bushy eyebrows.’ Indeed the Australian cricket captain Lindsay Hassett, who travelled in Strathaird, wrote in his book that ‘he was too highbrow for the Australians! - in the nicest possible way, for he was held in great esteem by all his passengers.’