James Alexander Allan

Who was James Alexander Allan?

James Alexander Allan was an Australian poet and local historian.

Allan was born in Melbourne. He was educated at Alfred Crescent State School, North Fitzroy and the Model School, and was a Commonwealth public servant from 1942 to 1950, as well as in the early years of the century. He enlisted, giving a false age, in 1940 but saw no action and was invalided home from Egypt in 1942. He was paid for the history of Camberwell commissioned from him but the finished manuscript was given to a better-known local historian for reworking and eventually published under the latter’s name. Himself the second child in a large family, Allan was married four times and begat at least six children, the three eldest now deceased.