Dr Allen was born in 1910 and brought up in rural Surrey. His first camera was a small Brownie box camera given to him by his Godmother. Dr Allen next purchased a 3.25″ x 2/25″ in-roll camera with a film speed of ASA64, a maximum shutter speed of 1/250 second and a maximum lens aperture of f6/3. Importantly, the camera was equipped with a Zeiss lens and Dr Allen used the camera until 1939 graduating to a more sophisticated camera after the war but using the same film format. Dr Allen died on Christmas Day 1989.
Dr Allen’s practice was in East Anglia and much of his railway photography was taken in this area. After his death, Dr Allen’s collection was retained by his daughter Penelope Wickes and eventually sold off in 2 sections: the southern subjects and the East Anglian subjects. It is the East Anglian part of the collection which is now with The Transport Treasury although images from some other areas are included.
We are indebted to the assistance of Richard H N Hardy in the compilation of this list. Unfortunately, Dr Allen never recorded details of where and when images were taken as he retained all the information in his extremely capable memory. Of course, we would be delighted if customers were able to provide additional detail so that the list could be updated.
