Clifford Allen, 1st Baron Allen of Hurtwood

Reginald Clifford Allen, 1st Baron Allen of Hurtwood (9 May 1889 – 3 March 1939), known as Clifford Allen, was a British politician and prominent pacifist.

Career

The son of Walter Allen, he was Secretary and General Manager of the Daily Citizen between 1911 and 1915. He was Chairman of the No-Conscription Fellowship in the First World War, and was imprisoned for conscientious objection three times. After the war he was Treasurer and Chairman of the Independent Labour Party between 1922 and 1926, Chairman of the New Leader between 1922 and 1926 and director of the Daily Herald between 1925 and 1930.

He was raised to the peerage as Baron Allen of Hurtwood, of Hurtwood in the County of Surrey on 18 January 1932,^[1] as a boost to Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's representation in the House of Lords. In January 1935 Allen wrote of German dictator Adolf Hitler after he had met him: "I believe Herr Hitler's position in the country is unassailable. His sincerity is tremendous...I am convinced he genuinely desires peace...Germany's aggressive words and warlike phrases do not represent her intentions".^[2] Despite his championing of the cause of appeasement, he strongly condemned Nazi brutality and anti-semitism. His efforts to intercede with the German government trying to save Hans Litten, a prominent opponent of the Nazi regime, from Dachau concentration camp were however unsuccessful.^[3].

Personal life

Lord Allen of Hurtwood married Marjory Gill on 17 December 1921. They had one child. Never having fully recovered from the privations of his imprisonment during the First World War, he died in a sanatorium in Switzerland in 1939, aged 49, when the peerage became extinct.

References

1. ^ London Gazette: no. 33792. p. 484. 22 January 1932.
2. ^ Martin Gilbert, Plough My Own Furrow. The Story of Lord Allen of Hurtwood as told through his own writings and correspondence (London: Longmans, 1965), pp. 358-359.
3. ^ Arthur Marwick, Clifford Allen - The Open Conspirator London: Oliver & Boyd, 1964. pp.166-174

Further reading

• Arthur Marwick: Clifford Allen: The Open Conspirator, Oliver & Boyd, 1964
• David Boulton: Objection Overruled, Macgibbon & Kee, 1967
• Thomas C Kennedy: The hound of conscience : a history of the No-Conscription Fellowship, 1914-1919, Fayetteville : University of Arkansas Press, 1981 ISBN 0938626019

External links

• Page at Spartacus

Political offices
Preceded by Richard Collingham Wallhead	Chairman of the Independent Labour Party 1922–1926	Succeeded by James Maxton
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Allen of Hurtwood 1932–1939	Succeeded by Title Extinct