BURIAL: Buried at Waikumete Cemetery according to death certificate.
BURIAL: The NZ Herald of 8.5.1924 has "At 25 George Street, Rocky Nook, Thomas William, the beloved husband of Emma Allen (late Royal Navy) aged 74 years. The funeral with leave J Weir's, Ponsonby Road, at 2.30pm today (Friday) May 10 for Waikumete".
BIRTH: Registration District: East Stonehouse
1850 Birth in the Sub-district of East Stonehouse in the County of Devon No. 439 When: Twenty first November 1850
Where: 35 Edgcumbe Street East Stonehouse
Name: Thomas William
Sex: Boy
Name of father: William Nicholas ALLEN
Name of mother: Louisa ALLEN formerly MINHINNICK
Occupation of father: Smith
Signature, description and residence of informant: Louisa Allen, Mother, 35 Edgcumbe Street, East Stonehouse
When registered: Seventh December 1850
MARRIAGE: Wesleyan Church, Auckland. Thomas is listed as 26 years of age, profession mariner. Catherine as 21 years without profession.
BIOGRAPHY: What follows is a summary of notes from the Auckland War Memorial Museum (which holds some of the minutes and correspondence of the Auckland Liedertafel), the Auckland City Library (which holds collections of music programmes, scrapbooks, and other various related archives), and excerpts from the "The New Zealand Observer" which are found on the "PapersPast" website of the National Library of New Zealand.
From Vivien Burgess, Music Indexing Project Librarian and the Auckland City Library:
"Some brief notes on the history of the Auckland Liedertafel, which was an all-male voice choir.
A newspaper article in 1913 at the time of the choirs’ 21st anniversary and 100th concert noted that the society was the “largest and most successful body of its kind in the Australasian colonies”. The society was formed in 1892 and held its first rehearsal in the studio of a famous water colour artist, Frank Wright. One of the conductors in the early 1900s described the society as follows: “In no society with which I have been connected has there been any approach to the esprit de corps that is to be found in the Auckland Liedertafel….From a conductor’s point of view, the discipline is well-nigh perfect. One tap of the stick is sufficient for attention. Each individual member sees that this idea is carried out, and woe betide a man who carries on a conversation after the signal for attention.” In 1913, the performing members numbered 102, and the subscribing members at 1075.
The choir changed its name during World War I, on account of its Germanic inheritance, to the Auckland Male Voice Choir, and then was granted a royal charter to become the Royal Auckland Male Voice Choir. It was later known as the Royal Auckland Choir and the last reference in Index Auckland is for 1970. Not sure what happened after this. Incidentally, the choir had a motto: the Liedertafel call “We onward fare” (musical motto) but I only found a reference to this in a couple of programmes as it probably fell out of favour with the name change.
Our earliest programmes date from 1893 when the society performed concerts with the Auckland Orchestral Union but the only choir list appears in a programme dated 13 September 1894 and T. W. Allen is not on this list. The first choir list we have reference to after this is for the concert with the orchestra on 26 September 1895 when T. W. Allen is listed as a singer. After this the programmes for the 1896 season list him as a performing member and then on through 1897, 1898, 1899 and 1900. For 1899 and 1900 the programmes note that he is on the committee. In 1901 he is listed as on leave and is consequently not listed on the committee. 1902 again singing and on committee, as for 1903 also. From 1904-1913 he is not listed as a performing member for any of the concerts.
The programme for the 100th anniversary concert in August 1913 also contains a photo of members in 1895. It also lists the committees for the various years and T. W. Allen is down for 1899-1903 inclusive, except for 1901 (on leave). He is included on the complete list of members in this booklet but is not singing at this time."
The library sent me a copy of the photo from July of 1895. There are 31 men, including the conductor, in the outdoor photo. In the back row, 5th from the left is, I believe, Thomas William ALLEN (scan of the photo is included in the scrapbook section).
The library has T. W. ALLEN indexed separately in just a couple of performances. The first, chronologically, was performed in May of 1897 and was a production of Sullivan's "Princess Ida" by the Auckland Comic Opera Company. T.W. is listed as performing the role of "Scynthius". This was, according to an article in the "New Zealand Observer", a flop.
In November of 1900, T.W. performed in "The Yeoman of the Guard" to much better reviews. The "New Zealand Observer" of Saturday, November 10, 1900 says the following: "Mr. T. W. Allen was quite an ideal Corporal of the Guard, and his big voice left no doubt that Allen was on the job whenever the yeomen were required to sing."
A programme titled "Grand Smoke Concert Tendered to the Men of the United States Battleship Fleet" performed in the Military Hall in Auckland 11 August 1908, has T.W. listed as a performer. [note: I haven't found anything further for this concert, but hopefully soon as it looks like the PapersPast web site will soon include newspaper issues that cover this date.]
And finally, the "Grand Naval Concert in Aid of the Navy League Relief Fund" concert given by the Bohemian Orchestra on 20 July 1916. The foreword:
"The sympathetic soul of the music lover must express sympathy with suffering sailors.
The present concert is tendered by the Bohemian Orchestra, assisted by Misses Jessie Bartlett and Rona Kino, Professor Maxwell Walker, Mr. Thomas Allen, and Private Ernest Drake."
"11. SONG (Basso) -- "Drake Goes West" . . . . . Sanderson
MR. T. W. ALLEN.
(The committee has been pleased to invite and reserve seats for that highly-esteemed body of veterans known as the Naval Reserve Association. They are men who have seen years of service in our Navy in the “good old days”. The average age of the party of fifteen who have accepted our invitation is 67 years. Mr. Tom Allen is welcomed on this programme as a prominent member of the Reserve.)
Mr. T. W. Allen was born in the County of Devon, the home of so many of our distinguished sailors, including Sir Richard Grenville, Hawkins, Drake, Raleigh, and countless others whose names are inscribed for all time on the roll of the immortal heroes of the sea. At the age of 14 he joined the Navy as second-class boy on H.M.S. "Implacable", from which ship he was drafted to the "Achilles" on attaining first-class rate. This ship was then under the command of Captain E. W. Vansittart, and was famous in its day as being the first iron man-of-war to be built in a Government dockyard. While on board the Achilles he was associated with many young officers who in later years occupied some of the highest positions in the Service, among them being the future Admirals Custance, Neville, and Lascelles. He subsequently served on board the "Revenge" under Captain Thomas Cochrane, the future Sir Cyprian Bridge being at that time attached to the ship in the capacity of Commander. In 1869 he was present at the opening of the Suez Canal on board the "Caledonia" and as such selected for the patrolling of the Mediterranean during the Franco Prussian war. His life has thus been full of incident and closely associated with many interesting events in naval history, as well as with men whose names now stand deservedly high in the annals of our Fleet."
Here are some links to the ships mentioned:
HMS Implacable 1854
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/site/request/setTemplate:singlecontent/contentTypeA/conWebDoc/contentId/219
http://www.christopherlong.co.uk/pri.hmsimp.html
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/ships/html/sh_047500_hmsimplicabl.htm
Achilles
http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/achilles.htm
Revenge (seventh, 5600 tons, built at Pembroke)
http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/revenge_history.htm
Caledonia 1864
http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.com/~cyberheritage/ddd26.jpg
http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hms_caledonia.htm
BURIAL: Buried at Purewa according to death certificate.
BURIAL: The NZ Herald of 10.2.1892 has "On February 8 at Mount Eden Road, Catherine Isabella Sargent, the beloved wife of Thos W Allen aged 34 years. Private Internment."
BIRTH: BDM in NZ has been unable to locate a birth certificate for Bert. Have looked for both 'Albert' and 'Herbert'.
BURIAL: Riverview Abbey in Portland OR.
BIO: Arthur was the model for a statue which is in Albert Park, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a marble statue erected in 1902 as a memorial to troops of the Fifth New Zealand Contingent who died in the Boer War. It once featured a drinking fountain. (note from Auckland City Council web site 2004 -cra)
BURIAL: Riverview Abbey in Portland OR.
Never married.
Never married.
Never married.
BIOGRAPHY: When Edgar died, his family sent Jean Robocker a photo of Thomas William Allen. She had it framed locally.
Marriage Notes for Edgar Lionel ALLEN and Naomi
Edgar and Naomi had no children.
Emillia was Thomas William's second wife, after Catherine McLean died. They had a daughter Irene Catherine. There is a picture of her at age l2. But she did not live and at this writing, I do not know the cause of her death at an early age. As so often occurs, the older children could not accept the 2nd wife, and one by one left home.
Never knew any thing about Irene. Always liked the name Irene (Irene Cutress, in same school class at Concord gave the name a most pleasant attachment), and in this way, Irene Allen could be remembered with the name given to Carol Irene Robocker.
BIRTH: Registration District: Plymouth
1852 Birth in the Sub-district of Saint Andrew in the County of Devon No. 381 When: Twenty ninth July 1852
Where: 6 North Row Eldad Plymouth
Name: William George
Sex: Boy
Name of father: William Nicholas ALLEN
Name of mother: Louisa ALLEN formerly MINHINNICK
Occupation of father: Smith
Signature, description and residence of informant: Louisa Allen, Mother, 6 North Row, Eldad, Plymouth
When registered: Thirty first August 1852