Joseph Francis (Frank) Allen

  General Notes:

ALLEN, JOSEPH FRANCIS (1869-1933), architect, civil engineer and politician, was born on 6 August 1869 at Mount Perranzabuloe, Cornwall, England, son of William Allen, carpenter, and his wife Salome, née Williams. When 10 he came to Parramatta, New South Wales, with his parents, and in 1884 was articled to the Sydney architect Gordon Mackinnon. He then worked for Rhodes & Co., civil engineers, and from 1894 managed the workshops of Henry Simon & Co., milling engineers. In 1896 he moved to Western Australia where, after working as an assistant engineer on the Fremantle harbour works, he commenced private practice as an architect with Allen & Nicholas in 1898. His works included the East Fremantle Town Hall, Fremantle Trades Hall and Geraldton flour mills, as well as the Westralian, the first steel ship built in Western Australia. On 25 September 1900 he married Jean Symington Buntine.
In 1903 Allen won a seat on the East Fremantle Council and held it, but for one year, until his death. He served as mayor in 1909-14 and became property-owners' representative on the East Fremantle Tramways Board and a member of the board of the Fremantle Public Hospital.
After an unsuccessful attempt in 1912, Allen entered State parliament in 1914 as a Liberal member for the West Province of the Legislative Council, defeating W Sommerville by eight votes after a recount. In 1918 he attacked the National Coalition government over an agreement for the right to construct wheat-handling equipment. The validating bill was defeated but Allen was said to have admitted representing his former employer Henry Simon & Co. He became chairman of committees in the council in August 1919 but was defeated in the 1920 election. Henceforth his political influence was to be exclusively outside parliament. He stood unsuccessfully for Fremantle in the assembly in 1921, for the Senate in 1922 and for the West Province of the council in 1923.
Early in 1921 Allen became chairman of the West Australian divisional council of the Australian National Federation. This included three constituent bodies—the Liberal League, the National Federation and the National Labor Party; the first two amalgamated to form the National League with Allen as founding president. He retained the position after the league absorbed other groups in December 1924 to form the United Party.
Allen tried often to conclude election pacts with both State and Federal Country parties. His task was complicated by Country Party disunity and the opposition of some leading Nationalist members who advocated amalgamation or active competition — the policy of 'fuse or fight'. They probably nullified his attempt to negotiate a joint National-Country Party Senate ticket in 1922; his success in so doing in 1925 was due to pressure from Federal leaders and financial backers. In 1926 he was opposed again when he sought a pact for the Legislative Council election. When the party repudiated him publicly, he resigned as president in March with two other senior executive members.
Allen remained prominent in public affairs. In 1928 he became chairman of the Rottnest Island Board of which he was a foundation member in 1917, and in 1931 he was elected mayor of East Fremantle for the second time. He also held office in the Fremantle Municipal Tramways and Electric Lighting Board, Fremantle Chamber of Commerce (president in 1921-25 and 1933), the Royal Institute of Architects and the local Rotary club. Throughout his life in Western Australia he was active in Presbyterian and Masonic affairs. He died suddenly on 23 May 1933: his body was found in the Swan River near his home; the coroner found no suspicious circumstances. Survived by a daughter, he was buried in the Presbyterian section of the Fremantle cemetery.
Select Bibliography
J. S. Battye (ed), Cyclopedia of Western Australia, vol 1 (Adel, 1912); West Australian, 19 May 1914, 10, 12, 23 Mar 1926, 24, 25 May 1933; D. W. Black, The National Party in Western Australia, 1917-1903: Its Origins and Development with an Introductory Survey of ‘Liberal’ Party Organisation, 1901-1916 (M.A. thesis, University of Western Australia, 1974). More on the resources
Author: David Black
Print Publication Details: David Black, 'Allen, Joseph Francis (1869 - 1933)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7,Melbourne University Press, 1979, p. 44.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Religion: Presbyterian.

• connection. ⁸⁰⁹ My connection to Melanie Daly (nee Wilson) as follows:

Melanie Wilson (1963)
Her father is Melville Wilson (1943)
His father was Melville Wilson (1900) who married Janet Allen (1902)
Her father was Joseph Allen (1869) who married Jane Buntine (1860)
Her father was John Buntine (1827) who married Janet Armstrong (c1837)
Her father was Thomas Armstrong (1791) & he also had Jane Armstrong (1816) who married Christopher Dixon (1812)
They had Janet Dixon (1853) who married Harry Hiscock 9c1846)
They had Frank Hiscock (1873) who married Emily Wallis (1875)
Her father was William Wallis (1849) who married Victorine Groube (1851)
Her father was Rev Horatio Groube (1814) & he also had George Groube (1847)
He had Edith Groube (1880) who married Percy Howe (1866)
His father was Robert Howe (1833)
His father was Frederick Howe (1805)
His father was James Howe (1777)
His father was George Howe (1741) & he also had Sarah Howe (1775)
She had Alexander Moss (1811)
She had James Moss (1846)
He had Laura Kershaw Waldock or Moss (1864)
She had Winthrop Larkinson (1889)
He had Dulcie Larkinson (1926) who married Colin Davies (1925)
They had me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

Joseph married Jane Symington (Jean) Buntine, daughter of John Buntine and Janet Elliot Armstrong, on 25 Sep 1900 in Fremantle, Western Australia. (Jane Symington (Jean) Buntine was born on 29 Dec 1860 in Moonee Ponds, Victoria Australia, died on 27 Oct 1912 in Fremantle, Western Australia and was buried in Fremantle Cemetery, Section Mon E, Gravesite 0169, Western Australia.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Certificate: (767).