Allen was recognised as one of the Yorkshire Artists group but also made numerous landscape works of the west of Ireland particularly in the area around Achill.
Allen showed remarkable artistic talent from an early age and, in 1902, won third prize for pen and ink drawing in an art studentship competition run by the Sheffield Weekly Independent.
In 1915, Allen enlisted with the Royal Garrison Artillery of the Regular Army and in June 1916 was posted to the British Expeditionary Force to France.
A shell falling within a yard of him buried and bruised him, but he managed to get free and obtain further assistance and save the officer's life.
After the death of Allen's father in 1932, the couple went to live with his mother, Elizabeth Epworth Blacktin.
[5] Allen was recognised as one of the Yorkshire Artists group, but also made numerous landscape works of the West of Ireland, particularly in the area around Achill.
[9] In April 2013, two of Allens' wartime paintings, of Achill Island in County Mayo, were shown on BBC One's Antiques Roadshow.