10
ALLEN.
officiated as Senior Mate of the Impregnable 104, flag-ship at Plymouth of Sir Graham Moore. His appointments have since been – 4 March, 1842, to the Indus 72, Capt. Sir Jas. Stirling, in the Mediterranean – 20 March, 1843, to the Sappho 16, Capt. Hon. Geo. Hope, off the coast of Africa – and, 13 Dec. 1845, as First, to the Sampson steam-frigate, Capt. Thos. Henderson, now employed in the Pacific.
ALLEN. (Ret. Capt., 1840. f-p., 15; h-p., 39.)
Charles Allen, born 22 July, 1779, at Blackheath, co. Kent, is son of the late Wm. Allen, Esq., of the Stamp Office, a Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital.
This officer entered the Navy, 7 May, 1793, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Diomede 44, Capt. Matthew Smith, and was in that ship when she struck on a sunken rock and was lost, off Trincomalee, 2 Aug. 1795. Joining, then, the Heroine 32, Capt. Alan Hyde Gardner, he co-operated in the ensuing reduction of the Dutch settlements in the island of Ceylon. He was ultimately promoted, from the Suffolk 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Peter Kainier, to a Lieutenancy, 18 June, 1799, in the Victorious 74, Capts. Wm. Clark and Pulteney Malcolm; after which, on his return from the East Indies, he joined, 29 July, 1803, the Spencer 74, Capt. Hon. Robt. Stopford, obtained command, in Nov. 1804, of the Signal station at Selsea, and was next appointed, 26 July, 1805, and 2 June, 1808, to the Thetis 38, Capt. Wm. Hall Gage, and Bellerophon 74, Capt. Sam. Warren. On 7 July, 1809, in consequence of the death of the gallant Lieut. Joseph Hawkey, who fell early in the action, Mr. Allen succeeded to the command of the boats of the latter ship, and of the Implacable 74, Melpomene 38, and Prometheus 18, seventeen in number, containing about 270 officers and men, in the course of a dashing attack on a Russian flotilla of 8 gunboats and 12 merchantmen, carrying altogether double the complement of men, lying at anchor under Porcola Point, on the coast of Finland, and centred between two rocks, from the summits of which they were protected by a shower of grape.[1] Notwithstanding all this, six of the gun-boats were irresistibly boarded and carried, another was sunk, and the whole convoy, with a large armed ship, captured. The loss of the British amounted to 17 men killed and 37 wounded : that of the Russians is reported to have been at least 63 killed, and a proportionate number wounded. For this daring and most important achievement, Lieut. Allen received the sincere thanks of the Commander-in-Chief, and a Commander’s commission bearing date the day of the action. Unable, however, to procure further employment, he at length retired with the rank of Captain, 10 Sept. 1840.
ALLEN. (Captain, 1846. f-p., 22; h-p., 3.)
Henry Murray Edward Allen is next brother of Capt. John Jas. Allen, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy 1 Aug. 1822. Becoming Midshipman, in 1823, of the Sybille 48, Capt. Sam. John Brooke Pechell, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, and was there employed in the boats during a hard-fought and sanguinary contest with the pirates of Candia, 18 June, 1826. Obtaining his first commission, 24 Feb. 1829, he was afterwards appointed, on the former and North America and West India stations – 25 Feb. 1830, to the Actæon 26, Capt. Hon. Fred. Wm. Grey – 9 July, 1834, as First, to the Favorite 18, Capt. Geo. Rodney Mundy – and, 14 Feb. 1837, in a similar capacity, to the Seringapatam 46, Capt. John Leith. Capt. Allen, who attained the rank of Commander 23 Nov. 1841, and had been employed, since 4 June, 1844, in the Imaum 72, bearing the broad pendants at Jamaica of Commodores Alex. Renton Sharpe and Dan. Pring, acquired the rank he now holds 9 Nov. 1846.
He married, 30 Dec. 1841, Mary, daughter of the late John Eversley, Esq.
ALLEN. (Vice-Admiral, of the Blue, 1846. f-p., 17; h-p., 43.)
John Allen (a) entered the Navy, 12 Feb. 1787, on board the Sybil, Capt.Rich. Bickerton, on the West India station; and from 1790 until Oct. 1793, served in the Boyne 98, Capt. Geo Bowyer, and Impregnable and Assistance, flag-ships at Plymouth and Newfoundland of Sir Rich. Bickerton and Sir Rich. King. Removing then to the Penelope 32, he assisted, in company with the Iphigenia 32, at the capture, off St. Domingo, 25 Nov. foUowing, of the French 36-gun frigate L’Inconstante, after a close action of half an hour, in which the Penelope had one man killed and seven, including himself, wounded.[2] Mr. Allen, who obtained a Lieutenancy, on 10 Dec. in the same year, in the Convert 36, Capt. John Lawford, was unfortunately wrecked, in the West Indies, 8 March, 1794; after which event he became successively attached to the Iris 32, Capt. Wm. Hargood, on the North America and Africa stations, and London 98, flagship in the Channel of Sir John Colpoys. Assuming the rank of Commander, 6 Dec. 1796, he next, between Feb. 1798 and Nov. 1799, served in the Childers, Alecto, and Echo sloops, in the latter of which, on the Jamaica station, he captured, 3 July, 1799, L’Amazon, French letter of marque, of 10 guns and 60 men. He was posted 29 April, 1802, but did not again go afloat until 17 Jan. 1810, when he joined the Franchise 36. After visiting Newfoundland, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, and was there transferred, 1 Aug. 1811, to the Rodney 74. He returned to England in April, 1812, as Captain of the Perlen 38, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Chas. Boyles. During the last two years of the war, Capt. Allen officiated as Agent for Prisoners of War at Newfoundland. This was his last employment. His promotion to the rank of Rear-Admiral took place 17 Aug. 1840; and to that he now holds 9 Nov. 1846.
The Vice-Admiral is in the receipt of a pension for wounds of 250l. He is married and has issue.
ALLEN. (Captain, 1815. f-p., 16; h-p., 31.)
John Allen (b), born 23 Feb. 1789, in London, is second son of the late Thos. Allen, Esq., F.A.S., F.L.S., F.S.A., of Crane Hall, co. Suffolk, by Jane, youngest daughter of the late Wm. Watts, Esq., and sister of the late David Pike Watts, Esq., of Portland Place, and of Capt. John Watts, R.N. His elder brother, the late Lieut. Thos. Allen, an officer in the Army, served throughout the whole of the Peninsular War, and, in the 1st Line Battalion of the German Legion, shared in the glories of Waterloo; his next brother, David, a Captain in the 2nd Madras Cavalry, died Commandant of Nelloor, in 1832; and his youngest brother, James, is a retired Major of the 7th Bengal Cavalry.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 June, 1800, as Midshipman, on board the Osprey 18, commanded by his uncle, Capt. John Watts, and afterwards by Capts. Geo. Irvine, Rich. Dalling Dunn, and Geo. Younghusband, on the Africa and West India stations. While under the latter officer, he commanded the Osprey’s launch at the reduction of Ste. Lucie, 22 Oct. 1803 – was also present at the ensuing surrender of Tobago – and, on 23 March, 1804, took part in a gallant action of an hour and a half, in which, with a loss to herself of one man killed and 16 wounded, the Osprey beat off the French frigate-built privateer L’Egyptienne, of 36 guns and 248 men, 8 of whom were killed and 19 wounded. Removing next, with Capt. Younghusband, to the Heureux 24, Mr. Alien, as Master’s Mate, contributed, during a servitude of nearly two years in that ship, to the capture, on the same station, of, among numerous other vessels, the French privateers Huron, of 20, and Jeune Adéle of 14 guns. He then returned home in the Wolverene 18, Capt. Eras. Aug. Collier, and after an intermediate attachment to the Zealand 64, and Northumberland 74, flag-ships at the Nore, and again in
