My father, Shirley Allen, who has died aged 98, was a former eighth army veteran who served as a flash spotter in the 3rd survey regiment of the Royal Artillery in Egypt, Sicily and Italy. Later he returned to Monte Cassino, the site of a long and hard-fought battle outside Rome, and talked about his wartime experiences to schoolchildren, becoming a parent governor of Lostock Hall school in Lancashire, which I attended with my younger sister.
He was a kind, peaceful man who abhorred aggression. He was concerned that, as the wartime generation died, nationalism, inequality, persecution of minorities due to their religious beliefs or race, and reduced international co-operation could lead to the return of conflict. He remained liberal in his outlook and his politics throughout his life.
Born in Worthing, West Sussex, Shirley attended Hollingbury preparatory school in Brighton, as did his brothers, Frank (who also lived to 98), and Peter (who served in the Parachute Regiment, also seeing combat in Italy).
He talked little about his early life, apart from his enjoyment of sport and summer cruises with his parents, Thomas Allen and Ruby McDermott. He then admitted that he did not believe his parents were married and unlocked a draw in his father’s old desk that contained stage photos of his mother and documents that revealed his father had been a theatre impresario in the Midlands. He had met Ruby when he hired her as an actor.
After I wrote an article for snapshot in the Guardian in 2015 about the documents and photographs, I was contacted by a great-granddaughter of Thomas from an earlier relationship with May Chatwin, whom he had abandoned in 1927 after selling the Nottingham Hippodrome. We had planned to organise a family reunion this year with the descendants of Thomas, May and Ruby but it was cancelled due to Covid-19.
After returning from the war my father married my mother, Kathleen (nee Herridge), whom he had met at a dance in Walsall in the West Midlands, before he was called up. They were both involved in the building of a munitions factory there, working on the same site, and went on to enjoy 70 years of marriage. Kathleen died in 2018. During his working life he was a quantity surveyor for Lancashire county council.
My father supported Preston North End FC and last went to see them on his 97th birthday when they beat their local rivals Blackburn Rovers. He was a keen walker, but was not a great map reader; many family members have stories of getting lost with him. His longest walk remained the one he took from the foot of Italy to the Yugoslavian border during the war.
He is survived by his children, David, Sue, Janine and me, 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
