Fonds jas-2614 - Harold Allen fonds

Harold Allen was born in Truro, Nova Scotia (1883). His father, Richard, a hatter by trade from Droyelsden, Lancashire, immigrated to Canada to train apprentices. The Allen family returned to England in 1891, where Harold completed school at age 14 (1897). Allen apprenticed with the railroad until 1904. He lived briefly in Australia, before moving to Calgary, Alberta where he worked as engineer at Holy Cross Hospital [1910-1912]. He then travelled to Argentina where he worked on steam boilers. Upon the outbreak of World War I, Harold Allen returned to Calgary and enlisted in the army, but their quota was full. He continued on to Edmonton, Alberta and then to Jasper, Alberta, where he was able to enlist with the 49th Battalion, Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. He was shipped to England, and served in France until he received a medical discharge (1916). Upon his return to Canada he worked as an engineer in laundry in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and later, at the Tranquille Sanatorium in Kamloops, BC. In 1921 he took another job as laundry engineer and postmaster at Lejac Indian School near Fort Fraser, BC until 1933 when he moved to Vancouver, BC. Harold Allen worked in a number of saw and shingle mills as well as at the Royal City Cannery and St. Vincent's Hospital. Allen died in 1953, in Burnaby, BC after a three year illness.