Walter Lingen Allen

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Captain Walter Lingen Allen, R.N. (14 October, 1876 – ) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He would receive a considerable number of command appointments in destroyers and leaders and fight at the Battle of Jutland. This experience would exhaust him and place him on shore duties after September 1916.

Life & Career

Allen entered the Navy in July 1892 and received his first appointment to the corvette Cleopatra on the North American Station on 21 September 1892. This would over three years until the ship paid off on 5 December 1895.

Allen was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 31 December, 1898 and appointed to the battleship Empress of India.[1]

Allen attended the Portsmouth Signal School in 1902 and then spent a year as Flag Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Curzon-Howe in H.M.S. Magnificent.[2]

Allen returned to Portsmouth Signal School in 1904 to participate on a committee on signalling between naval vessels and merchant ment, and emerged to an appointment to Good Hope of the Cruiser Squadron, additional, as Flag Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral E. S. Poe, extending from 2 November 1904 to 15 July 1905. Allen was to become a destroyer commander, beginning now with an appointment to Kale. On 2 October he was placed in command of the "C" Class destroyer Leopard for seven months before receiving command of Roebuck, which would last over two years.[3]

Allen was appointed in command of the Desperate on 29 September 1908 and re-appointed in her command upon his promotion to the rank of Commander on 30 June, 1910.[4]

After spending a little over two years in larger ships Theseus and his ship of 1903 Magnificent, Allen returned to destroyer command with a five-month appointment to Rother on 22 February, 1913 followed by a longer temporary appointment to Doon.

Allen was finally to receive an appointment in command of a modern destroyer on 6 April, 1914 when he was appointed in command of the destroyer Achates.[5]

Allen was appointed to the flotilla leader Broke on 21 August, 1915 and it was in her that he led the second half-flotilla of the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla at the Battle of Jutland.[6] She collided with Sparrowhawk after attempting to fire her second torpedo at a cruiser and took considerable fire suffering over 40 men killed, several missing, and over thirty wounded. Allen was mentioned in despatches for maintaining "unshaken" morale in his ship in spite of this terrible test, gazetted 15 September 1916. Recommended for promotion for these services, Allen was promoted to the rank of Captain on 30 June, 1916.[7]

In mid September 1916, Allen took ill and was sent to a hospital ship. Discharged on 3 October,

After a final seagoing command in Ithuriel as Captain (D) of the Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla ended in March, 1917, Allen was sent to a hospital ship to be treated for shell shock for four days, though he would not be declared fit to return to command until 10 May, 1917. To spare him stress, Allen was appointed to Ceto additional as Senior Naval Officer, Ramsgate in late May, 1917, remaining there until being superseded on 21 March, 1919, though he may have received 46 days' full paid leave early in his appointment and also participated in a Court Martial.[8]

Allen was diagnosed with varicose veins at Haslar Hospital on 21 September, 1920 and placed on the Retired List on 12 January, 1921.[9]

See Also

Naval Appointments
Preceded by
?
Captain of H.M.S. Kale
15 Jul, 1905[10] – 2 Oct, 1905[11]
Succeeded by
Walter Hose
Preceded by
George G. Codrington
Captain of H.M.S. Leopard
2 Oct, 1905[12][13] – 28 May, 1906[14]
Succeeded by
Osmond J. Prentis
Preceded by
Stanley V. Ellis
Captain of H.M.S. Roebuck
28 May, 1906[15][16] – 29 Sep, 1908[17]
Succeeded by
John G. de O. Coke
Preceded by
Nigel K. W. Barttelot
Captain of H.M.S. Desperate
28 Sep, 1908[18][19] – 23 Aug, 1910[20]
Succeeded by
Montague G. B. Legge
Preceded by
Robert A. Hornell
Captain of H.M.S. Rother
22 Feb, 1913[21][22] – 6 Apr, 1914[23]
Succeeded by
Quentin C. A. Craufurd
Preceded by
Reginald V. Holt
Captain of H.M.S. Doon
15 Jul, 1913[24] – Aug, 1914
Succeeded by
Harry MacL. Fraser
Preceded by
Frederick P. Loder-Symonds
Captain of H.M.S. Achates
6 Apr, 1914[25][26] – 7 Aug, 1915[27]
Succeeded by
William J. F. Dunlop
Preceded by
New Command
Captain of H.M.S. Kempenfelt
7 Aug, 1915[28] – 21 Aug, 1915[29]
Succeeded by
Harold E. Sulivan
Preceded by
Harold E. Sulivan
Captain of H.M.S. Broke
21 Aug, 1915[30][31] – 10 Jun, 1916[32]
Succeeded by
Edward O. Gladstone
Preceded by
Charles D. Roper
Captain of H.M.S. Botha
30 Jul, 1916[33] – 5 Aug, 1916[34]
Succeeded by
Brien M. Money
Preceded by
Charles D. Roper
Captain (D), Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla
30 Jul, 1916[35] – 5 Aug, 1916[36]
Succeeded by
Harry R. Godfrey
Preceded by
Brien M. Money
Captain of H.M.S. Ithuriel
5 Aug, 1916[37][38] – Mar, 1917[39]
Succeeded by
Harry R. Godfrey
Preceded by
George N. Tomlin
Senior Naval Officer, Ramsgate
27 May, 1917 – 25 Mar, 1919
Succeeded by
Walter J. T. Saunders

Footnotes

  1. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  2. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  3. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  4. The Navy List. (March, 1913). p. 2.
  5. The Navy List. (January, 1915). p. 266.
  6. Battle of Jutland Official Despatches. pp. 34, 44.
  7. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  8. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  9. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  10. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  11. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  12. The Monthly Navy List. (December, 1905). p. 340.
  13. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  14. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  15. "Naval And Military Intelligence." The Times (London, England), Friday, May 18, 1906; pg. 12; Issue 38023.
  16. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  17. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  18. The Navy List. (January, 1910). p. 300.
  19. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  20. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  21. The Navy List. (April, 1914). p. 368.
  22. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  23. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  24. The Navy List. (September, 1913). p. 305.
  25. The Navy List. (January, 1915). p. 266.
  26. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  27. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  28. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  29. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  30. The Navy List. (October, 1915). p. 392n.
  31. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  32. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  33. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  34. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  35. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  36. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  37. The Navy List. (December, 1916). p. 395n.
  38. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.
  39. Allen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 280.