Horace Newton Allen

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This page is about the Protestant missionary, for the 1919 Brooklyn Robins baseball player, see Horace Allen (baseball).

Horace Newton Allen (1858 - 1932) was a Protestant medical missionary and a diplomat from the United States. He was born in Delaware, Ohio in April 23, 1858. He received his B.S. at Ohio Wesleyan University, in 1881 and subsequently graduated from Miami Medical School in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1883.

At his own request, he was appointed on a mission to China by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church and a year later he was sent to work at the United States Legation to Korea as physician. Soon after his arrival with his family on September 20, 1884, he was involved in the aftermath of Gapsinjeongbyeon, during which a royal relative Min Young Ik was stabbed and injured. The German diplomat Paul Georg von Möllendorff was present at the massacre and quickly requested Allen's medical care. Under his modern medical treatment unknown to Korea at the time, Min Young Ik recovered in three months. Consequently, this initiated for Allen a close connection with Gojong, and demonstrated the benefit of western medicine to the Korean public. With this auspicious turn of events Allen was able to establish Gwanghyewon(廣惠院, House of Extended Grace) under royal finance and support in Seoul. Gwanghyewon was the first modern medical facility in Korea. The Gwanghyewon was soon renamed by Gojong to Che Chung Won (the House of Civilized Virtue) and evolved to become the current Severance Hospital and Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea. He was instrumental to lift the nation's anti-Christianity policy to allow the influx of missionaries to evangelize, build schools and other western hospitals in the Hermit Kingdom.

His connections in Korea enabled him to act in the role of a diplomat. In 1887 he accompanied the first Korean legation to Washington. In 1890, became secretary to the American legation in Seoul. By 1897 he was US minister and consul general. With close relationship with Gojong and high government officials he arranged American business firms to build nation's first electric and water works, trolley and railway systems. He was outspoken against US noninterventionism during the Russo-Japanese War, but this was not well-received by the US government whose policy was in accord with the Taft-Katsura Agreement. He was recalled in 1905 and died in Toledo, Ohio on December 11, 1932. He was awarded by Gojong the highest decoration, Taeguk. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Toledo, Ohio. Between he and his wife, Frances Ann, 2 sons were born, Horace Ethan and Maurice.

His writings introduced Korean literature to the English-speaking world. His publications include:
Korean Tales, (1889)
A Chronological Index of the Foreign Relations of Korea from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Twentieth Century, (1901)
Supplement, (1903)
Things Korean, (Seoul, 1908)