Sir William Allan  
As published in the Times of London
Tuesday 29 December 1903

OBITUARY

Sir William Allan

    Sir William Allan, Liberal member for Gateshead, died suddenly last night at his residence, Scotland-house, Sunderland. He enjoyed his usual robust health up to Saturday morning last, but on awakening he complained of feeling unwell. He had a fit of Coughing and a sudden pain seized him across the chest. Dr. Robertson was called for. It was thought that Sir William Allan would have died there and then, but he got over the attack. On Sunday he was somewhat better, but yesterday morning at 8 o'clock he had a return of the angina pectoris which had caused the first attack. Recovering again, he felt very comfortable until 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon, when in turning over in bed his heart stopped and he died. Sir William leaves a widow, five sons, and four daughters.
    Sir William Allan was born at Dundee in 1837. His father, James Allan, was the head of the engineering firm of Messrs. James Allan and Co. Just before Sir William's birth, however, his father suffered commercial disaster, and Sir William was sent to work at the early age of 10 tears, serving his apprenticeship as an engineer. On completing his apprenticeship he emigrated to New York. He obtained work in Patterson, New Jersey, where he remained some years. Returning to the United Kingdom, he went to Glasgow, and while there he volunteered to serve in blockade running in the American Civil war. He became chief engineer of one of the vessels designed to elude the American cruisers, and was captured in Savannah Harbour. He was thrust into prison, where he remained six weeks. He contrived to bribe a sentry to take a letter to Lord Lyons, the British Minister, and was released on parole. Returning again to the United Kingdom, he first settled in Carlisle, and in 1866 went to Sunderland, where he worked in the yard of the North-East Engineering Company (Limited). There he remained til 1887, having risen to the position of manager of the works. In that year he established the Scotia Engine Works, which have since been amalgamated with Messrs. Richardsons, Westgarth, and Co. He was the first employer to establish an eight-hour day for his workmen. Sir William Allan is also said to have been an engineer in the Royal Navy, but, if so, it must have been many years ago, and probably only for a short period. He has represented Gateshead in the House of Commons 1863, and was a justice of the peace and deputy-lieutenant for the County of Durham. Latterly he became a director of Richardsons, Westgarth, and Co. (Limited), of Hartlepool, and Chairman of the Albyn Line (Limited).
     Not only was Sir William a familiar and picturesque figure among the business community of Wearside, but no member of the House of Commons in recent years has attracted more widespread attention by reason of his striking personality. Upwards of 6ft. in height and massively built, a leonine head covered with a thick mass of iron-grey hair, a long beard of the same hue, a wide felt sombrero hat jontily worn a little to the side, clothes of a pronouncedly Scottish check, with the jacket cut short, Sir William Allan never failed to attract the curious inquiries of distinguished and other strangers who visited the House of Commons. His oratory was as redolent of Scotland as the pattern of his dress. The strong Doric accent, unsoftened by his travels over the world and a long residence in the South accompanied by a wealth of emphatic and picturesque gestures, both amused and interested his listeners. He usually addressed the House in tones of thunder, especially when he hurled menacing predictions of evil to the Empire against the representatives of the Admiralty or the War Office sitting with an air of chastened sobriety on the Treasury bench during the prevalence of the storm. There was a good dear of harmless tragedy about his oratorical style, but whether he spoke on the misdeeds of the naval administration or the defects of War Office government everyone who heard him was impressed with his intense sincerity. He championed the cause of the soldiers as well as that of sailors and engineer artificers, and now and again he enlivened the dull debates on routine details of the Estimates by a droll kind of pungent humour. An illustration of that side of his character was given to Mr. Brodrick, when, with the fire of Scottish patriotism burning within him, Sir William Allan described his meeting with a Highland regiment on the Embankment. Sir William Allan addressed what he believed to be as fellow countryman "in braid Scots," but the soldier, he said, might as well have been addressed in French or German, for further questioning drew from the wear of the Scottish kilt the admission that he came "from Wapping."
    When it became known that the Admiralty proposed to employ the Belleville type of water-tube boiler as a steam generator for men-of-war, Sir William Allan at once offered a strenuous opposition to the proposal. When, Too, these boilers had been introduced he prophesied that ruin and disaster would follow. For years in parliament, on the platform, and in the press he continued this opposition, and it was largely owing to his trenchant criticism and adroit handling of facts that the Admiralty appointed a committee to inquire into the matter. The position which he took up with regard to the question was but little affected by the report of this committee, since it recommended other types of the water-tube boiler in substitution of the Bellville, whereas Sir William Allan condemned the system in whatever type it appeared, affirming that the Scotch cylindrical boiler, if





properly treated, could do all that was claimed for the water-tube, and was, more-over cheaper and safer. He was, however, somewhat mollified when the Admiralty introduced a modification of its original plan and placed in the new ships of the King Edward VII class a combination of cylindrical and water-tube boilers. One of the last public utterances of Sir William Allan in connexion with the Navy was to give unstinted praise to the new system for training Naval officers. He was quite satisfied that by giving the cadets a mechanical education and teaching them practical engineering the Admiralty were doing good work, the result of which could not fail to be beneficial to the Navy as well as to the officers themselves.
    Sir William Allan was present at the garden-party which was given by the late Queen to members of the House of Commons on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. His great girth and stature and the homely habit of dress, in which he rarely made the slightest modification, rendered him a prominent figure in the throng upon the lawns, and though he was a man who would not willingly have obtruded himself on such an occasion the late Queen noticed him and, not a little to his embarrassment, directed that he should be brought to her carriage. Sir William Allan had a few days before sent to the Queen a few verses in the Scottish dialect appropriate to the event of the day, in which he had expressed his profound admiration for the virtues which Queen Victoria had exhibited in her private life. He had not received any acknowledgment of his little tribute. and had believed that it had been overlooked or forgotten. The Queen now told him that his verses had been read and were remembered, and it was difficult to say whether the loyal subject or the poet was the more flattered by her praise. It was a harmless foible of Sir William Allan to take himself rather seriously as a writer of verse. He took especial pleasure in believing that the honor of knighthood, which was afterwards conferred on him at the time of the Coronation, was owing in some measure to the favor of the Queen. Sir William had been a familiar figure in several important literary centres of the Victorian era. He was in particular a frequent and welcome guest of the Carlyles at Chelsea, and Carlyle himself placed on record his high appreciation of the study and independent character of the Scottish engineer. Av mong some of his poetical works which have been published are "Sunset Songs" and "Songs of Love and War." He was very popular in his constituency with both political parties, and the congratulations which were showered upon him when he received the honour of knighthood were exceptionally hearty.