George Wigram Allen

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Sir George Wigram Allen KCMG, (16 May 1824 – 23 July 1885) was an Australian politician.

His father, also George Allen (1800-77), came to Sydney in 1816 and was the first attorney and solicitor admitted by the supreme court of New South Wales. He was an alderman of the first Sydney city council and was mayor in 1845. He was nominated to the old legislative council in this year, in 1856 was made a member of the new legislative council, and was elected chairman of committees. He was much interested in education and was a member of the senate of the university to which he bequeathed £1000 for a scholarship in mathematics. He died on 3 November 1877.

George the younger was educated under William Cape at Sydney College, where he showed ability in classics and mathematics, and in 1841 was articled to his father and became a solicitor. He was appointed a commissioner of national education in 1853 and held the position until 1867. He was nominated to the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1860, in 1869 was elected a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Glebe, and from December 1873 to February 1875 was minister for justice and public instruction in the first Henry Parkes ministry. In the following March he was elected speaker and remained in that position until January 1883. He retired from politics in the following August, and died after a short illness in 1885. He married Marian, eldest daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Boyce, who survived him with four daughters and six sons. He was knighted in 1877 and created K.C.M.G. in 1883.

Allen was a man of the highest character, everywhere held in the highest repute, whether as president of the Bible Society or of the law institute, as a director of well-known companies, as a steadfast friend of education, or in connexion with his many charities. As speaker he showed dignity, courtesy and ability, his only fault being that occasionally he was not sufficiently firm with some of the wilder spirits in the house.

[edit] Reference

• Serle, Percival. (1949). "Allen, George Wigram". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.