University of Birmingham Student (Alumni) Papers: Papers of George Cyril Allen

Miscellaneous papers largely relating to Allen's student life at the University of Birmingham in the early 1920s, consisting of letters of reference from members of academic staff; printed materials relating to his membership of University societies and to social activities; personal correspondence to Allen and his wife from fellow students, staff, and friends dating from his days at the University including J. G. Smith, Professor of Finance, Frank [Francis] Milligan [BA Social and Political Science 1920, MA 1921] and others, mostly written in the 1950s and 1960s, with a few letters dating from the 1970s; typescript copies of memoirs written by Allen's friend and contemporary at the University, ([harles] Allan Ashley [BCom 1921] relating to his early life and experiences during the First World War; and an order of service for Allen's funeral in 1982

George Cyril Allen was born in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, on 28 June 1900. He was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry, and then at the University of BIrmingham, where he was a student in the Faculty of Commerce. Allen obtained a BCom in 1921 and was awarded an MCom in 1922 for which his thesis, 'The history of an 18th century combination in the copper mining industry' was the first sign of his lifelong interest in the economics of industry. He was subsequently awarded a PhD in 1928 for his thesis on 'The industrial development of Birmingham and the Black Country, 1860-1914'. Allen was influenced during his time at the University by the economic historian Sir William Ashley.

Ashley was also instrumental in giving Allen the opportunity of a teaching post in Japan, when in 1922 he encouraged Allen to accept a two-year appointment as lecturer in economics at the new Nagoya high school [later part of the University of Nagoya] in central Japan. Allen began to study Japanese economic affairs and Japan as a nation. On his return to Britain he took up a research fellowship and then a lectureship at Birmingham. In 1925 his article on Japan's currency and exchange rate policy was published in the Economic Journal. His first book, 'Modern Japan and its Problems' was published in 1928, and the following year he published his PhD thesis. Both were innovatory in their fields, and the research on Japan was especially original, linking a study of Japan's political and social organisation with its financial and industrial systems.On the basis of these achievements, Allen was appointed in 1929 the first holder of the chair of economics and commerce at Hull University College. In the same year he married Eleanora [Nell[ Cameron McKinlay Shanks, daughter of David Shanks JP of Moseley. Eleanora had been a fellow student at the University of Birmingham and was awarded a BA in German in 1921.

From 1933 to 1947 Allen was Brunner professor of economic science at the University of Liverpool, and from 1947 to 1967 professor of political economy at University College, London. Nell died in 1972, and in 1975 Allen retired to Oxford. He was made a supernumerary of St Antony's College in 1980, where he welcomed the foundation of the new Nissan Institute for Japanese Studies. In his last year at Hull, in 1933, Allen published 'British Industries and their Organisation'. This became perhaps his best-known work, and went through five editions, the last in 1970. He continued to be a prolific author, but from 1938 the books he wrote were mainly about Japan and the Far East, though his articles, pamphlets and other publications show a balance between his intersts in Britain and Japan.

In 1930 Allen served briefly as economic adviser to Lloyd George. During the Second World War he served in the Board of Trade, where he was mainly involved with work on post-war reconstruction. He was an active member of the group of economists who wanted to introduced legislation to control monopoly and restrictive practices. This led to the prominence given to the subject in the 1944 white paper on employment policy, and eventually to legislation introduced in 1948. From 1950 to 1962 he was a member of the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission, and also served on the Central Price Regulation Committee from 1944 to 1953, and on several other official committees. In 1945 he was asked by the Foreign Office to take charge of the Japanese section of the economic and industrial plannign staff. His unique knowledge of the Japanese economy contributed to the formulation by the allied powers of policy towards Japan during the occupation. He made a number of visits to Japan, and received the order of the Rising Sun in 1961 and the Japan Foundation award in 1980. He was appointed CBE in 1958 and elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1965. He died at his home in Oxford on 31 July 1982

Sources: Aubrey Silberston, Allen, George Cyril (1900-1982), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/54106, Accessed September 2017; University Archives

Open, access to all registered researchers.

Received from the executor of Professor G.C. Allen in 1992

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Copies of Allen's MCom and PhD theses are held by the University of Birmingham Library

The Cadbury Research Library also holds the archives of other former staff, officials, and students

Associated Materials

Other papers of Allen are held by the University College London (UCL) Special Collections (GB 103)