Douglas Allen, Baron Croham

Who was Douglas Allen, Baron Croham?

Douglas Albert Vivian Allen, Baron Croham, GCB, FRSA was a British politician and civil servant.

The son of Albert John Allen, Douglas Allen was only one when his father was killed in action during the First World War. Allen was educated at Wallington County Grammar School and at the London School of Economics, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in statistics in 1938. During the Second World War, from 1940 to 1945, he served in the Royal Artillery. Having entered the British Civil Service, Allen worked in the Board of Trade between 1939 and 1947, and in Her Majesty's Treasury between 1948–58.

In 1958, he became a Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Health, a post he held until 1960, when he changed to Her Majesty's Treasury again. Made a Third Secretary in 1962 and a Permanent Secretary in 1966, he worked for the Department of Economic Affairs. Allen was Permanent Secretary of Her Majesty's Treasury from 1968 to 1974, and Permanent Secretary of the Civil Service Department and Head of the Home Civil Service.