by his son Alfred Allen
Charles Allen 1898 – 2000
Charles Ewart Allen was born in 1898 in El Paso Texas. He moved to England in 1904 together with his parents. He was educated at the Worchester Grammar school.
In 1916 he joined the Royal Fusiliers and was sent to Northern France. He fought in a horrible war in the trenches – he often talked about this part of his terrible experience. Later he joined the British occupational forces in Cologne, where he married my mother in 1923.
He started his career with the British Consulate in Cologne after he was discharged from the army in 1920. From Cologne he was transferred to Rotterdam in 1925 and in 1940 when the Germans invaded Holland we were rescued by the British Navy, who kindly brought us to Tilbury on 14th May 1940. For a while my father worked in the Mercantile Marine Office at Avonmouth.
In 1944 he was sent to Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa by the Foreign Office. However, he returned to the U.K. at the end of 1945 and was then enrolled in the Control Commission for Germany. In 1946, together with his colleagues, he opened the British Consulate General in Hamburg. In 1954 he was transferred to New York where he finally retired in 1958.
He spend most of his retired life in Portugal. Unfortunately my mother died in 1978 and Father lived in Portugal for 4 years by himself. Then he lived for 8 years in Germany with his sister-in-law. When his sister-in-law became ill he decided to come and live in Andorra.
He had a very interesting life here in Andorra, playing bridge twice a week, but unfortunately at the age of 97 his eyes deteriorated to such an extent that he virtually became blind.
He passed away on 8th November 2000
Alfred Allen
