Sir Carleton Kemp Allen (7 September 1887 – 11 December 1966) was an Australian-born

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

and

Warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically ident ...

Rhodes House Rhodes House is a building part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor. It is listed Grade II* ...

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

. Entry by his successor as Warden of Rhodes House, E.T. Williams, in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''

Early life and student career

Carleton Allen, or 'C.K.' as he came to be known, was born in

Carlton, Victoria Carlton is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. Carlton recorded a population of 16,055 at the 2021 census. Imm ...

, the third son of

William Allen William Allen may refer to: Politicians United States *William Allen (congressman) (1827–1881), United States Representative from Ohio * William Allen (governor) (1803–1879), U.S. Representative, Senator, and 31st Governor of Ohio * Willia ...

, a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

minister and the younger brother of

Leslie Holdsworth Allen Leslie Holdsworth Allen (21 June 1879 – 5 January 1964) was an Australian academic and poet. He was Professor of English at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, the senior lecturer of English and Latin at Canberra University College and cha ...

. He was three when his family moved to Sydney, where he attended

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

(1900–1906). In 1903 and 1904 he was awarded the Wigram Allen Scholarship, awarded by

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only a ...

George Wigram Allen Sir George Wigram Allen (16 May 1824 – 23 July 1885) was an Australian politician and philanthropist. He was Speaker in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 1875–1883. Allen was held in high esteem. As speaker he showed dignity, court ...

, sharing it in 1904 with

Howard McKern Howard Hamlet Gordon McKern (23 March 1917 - 8 June 2009) was an Australian Analytical chemistry, analytical and organic chemist, museum administrator who was Deputy Director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences and President of the Royal Soci ...

. At the end of 1905 he was named Dux of the College and received the Schofield Scholarship. At the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one o ...

he read classics and graduated

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1910. Having won a scholarship to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, he attended New College and studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning ...

under

Sir Paul Vinogradoff Sir Paul Gavrilovitch Vinogradoff (russian: Па́вел Гаври́лович Виногра́дов, transliterated: ''Pavel Gavrilovich Vinogradov''; 18 November 1854 (O.S.)19 December 1925) was a Russian and British historian and medieval ...

. He took first-class honours in 1912 and was elected Eldon Law Scholar in 1913.

Military and academic career

Allen was a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in the 13th

Battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

Middlesex Regiment The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The regiment was formed, as the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), in 1881 as part of the Childers Ref ...

, in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, was wounded, and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

in 1918. At the end of the war, he was elected Stowell Civil Law Fellow of

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

and he remained a fellow of that college until his death. In 1926, he spent a year as

Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resha ...

professor at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

and published his lectures from that time as ''Law in the Making'' in 1927. This compilation became an established classic and he completed a seventh edition in 1965. In 1929 he was appointed Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford, but in 1931 became the second warden of Rhodes House. He filled this office with great distinction and he and his wife, Dorothy Frances Allen (1896–1959), whom he had married at Oxford in 1922, won the affection and respect of generations of Rhodes scholars. Dorothy Allen's memoirs, ''Sunlight and Shadow'' (1960) (which Allen brought to publication after her death), give an account of life at Rhodes House. On his retirement in 1952 he was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

ed. He died at Oxford and was survived by his second wife, Hilda, whom he had married in 1962, and by two children of his first marriage, a son and daughter (the writer

Rosemary Dinnage Rosemary Dinnage (née Allen; 17 January 1928 – 10 July 2015) was a British author and critic. She was listed by ''The Observer'' as one of Britain's top 300 intellectuals in 2011. Biography Rosemary Dinnage was born in Oxford and grew up in ...

). A portrait of Sir Carleton Allen hangs in Rhodes House, Oxford, and images of him are held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Publications

* The Judgment of Paris: A Comedy (1924) * Oh! Mr Leacock (1925) * Law in the Making (1927) * Bureaucracy Triumphant (1931) * Legal Duties and other essays in Jurisprudence (1931) * Democracy and the Individual (1943) * Law and Orders (1945) * The Queen's Peace (1953), his

Hamlyn Lectures The Hamlyn Lectures are a series of public lectures in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland given annually on a legal topic. The lectures have been given every year since 1949. History The Hamlyn Trust was established in 1948 by the wil ...

* Law and Disorders (1954) * Aspects of Justice (1958); he also wrote two novels.

References

Bibliography

* David Macmillan, Newington College 1863–1963 (Sydney, 1963) * Peter Swain, Newington Across the Years 1893–1988 (Sydney, 1988) * Lord Elton, The First Fifty Years of the Rhodes Trust and the Rhodes Scholarships, 1903–1953 (Oxford, 1955) * Dorothy Allen, Sunlight and Shadow: An Autobiography (Oxford University Press: London, 1960) {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Carleton 1887 births 1966 deaths Australian military personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War I Middlesex Regiment officers Australian recipients of the Military Cross Australian Knights Bachelor Australian Congregationalists Australian educators Australian people of English descent People educated at Newington College Wardens of Rhodes House Fellows of University College, Oxford University of Calcutta faculty Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature English justices of the peace Members of Lincoln's Inn Alumni of New College, Oxford Professors of Jurisprudence (University of Oxford)