Allen, George James, Midshipman, Fl. 1792-1811.

The majority of the letters are from Allen to his mother and other family members during the years from 1805 to 1810, particularly while Allen was midshipman aboard HMS IMOGENE under Captain Thomas Garth. For example, writing from the IMOGENE off Corfu in May 1810, Allen apologises to his mother for his 'long silence, which is owing to our having been employed at the capture of the Island of St Maura'. Other items include letters between Captain Garth and Allen, and an anomalous letter of 1836 to a Mr Cracknall asking for a pair of trousers to be made for a dinner with the Duchess of Kent.

Administrative / biographical background
George James Allen was born in Southampton in 1792. Between 1805 and 1811 he was a midshipman on the brig-sloop HMS IMOGENE in the North Sea and then the Mediterranean. He took part in the capture of the island of Santa Maura in 1810. Unfortunately, nothing is known about his later career. His father William Allen was deputy receiver of land tax for the county of Southampton and captain of the Whitchurch Volunteer Infantry. When he died at Whitchurch in 1809, a subscription fund for the financial relief of his widow Lucy Allen and numerous children was organised by neighbours and friends. In the following year Lucy Allen opened a preparatory school for boys. Meanwhile, her eldest son William Birkett Allen studied civil law at St. John’s College, Oxford. He later became rector of the parish of Winterbourne in Gloucestershire. Lucy Allen died at Whitchurch in 1823. There is no mention of George in her will, see PROB 11/1680/186 at The National Archives.