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{{short description|British politician and scholar}}{{Infobox officeholder
| name = William Edward David Allen
| office = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] <br /> for [[Belfast West (UK Parliament constituency)|Belfast West]]
| predecessor = [[Robert Lynn (Northern Ireland politician)|Robert Lynn]]
| successor = [[Alexander Browne]]
| otherparty = [[Conservative Party UK|Unionist]] (1922-1931)
| party = [[New Party (UK)|New Party]] (since 1931)
| spouse = [[Paula Gellibrand]]
| termstart = 30 May 1929
| termend = 7 October 1931
| alma_mater = [[Eton College]]
| birth_date = 6 January 1901
| death_date = {{death date and age|18 September 1973|6 January 1901|df=y}}
}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2013}}
'''William Edward David
==Career==
Born into, on his father's side, an [[Ulster
In the pre-[[Second World War]] years, he travelled a lot and conducted extensive research on the history of the peoples of the [[Caucasus]] and [[Anatolia]]. In 1930, along with [[Sir Oliver Wardrop]], he founded the Georgian Historical Society; the Society published its own journal, ''Georgica'', dedicated to [[Kartvelian studies]].
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His mother financed his personal enterprises until around 1935, and also provided a home at Commonwood House, Chipperfield, Hertfordshire, where he and his brothers could bring their guests at weekends: in Allen's case, he wrote later, these would include "bizarre intellectuals, Caucasian philologists and exiled national leaders from the remoter parts of Central Asia".<ref name="odnb" />
In 1940–1, he accompanied [[Orde Wingate]] on his mission to
He wrote with Paul Muratoff ([[Pavel Muratov]]) two volumes on the Russian campaign for [[Penguin Books]]. [[John Erickson (historian)|John Erickson]] wrote that they (particularly the second volume) are examples of skilful exploitation of contemporary sources, and even today retain considerable value, including the elucidation of terrain factors.<ref>{{cite book |last= Erickson |first= John |title= The Road to Berlin: Stalin's War with Germany: Volume Two |edition= 2 |orig-year= 1983 |year= 1999 |publisher= Yale University Press |location= New Haven |isbn= 0-300-07813-7 |pages= 789, 836 }}</ref>
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Allen was an officer with [[His Majesty's Diplomatic Service]] from 1943—notably information counsellor at [[Ankara]] between 1947 and 1949—until he stepped down and returned to his native [[Ulster]] in 1949. There, while living near [[Killyleagh]], [[County Down]], he divided his working time between running the family business (''David Allen's'', a major bill-posting company) and writing the two major books which he completed during the 1950s: ''Caucasian Battlefields'' (1953, with [[Pavel Muratov]]), and ''David Allens'' (1957, an account of the business and a collective biography of the Allen family). His last book, ''Russian Embassies to the Georgian Kings (1589-1605)'', written with the help of the translator Anthony Mango, was published in two volumes by the [[Hakluyt Society]] in 1970. He spent his last years living at Whitechurch House, near [[Cappagh, County Waterford|Cappagh]] in [[County Waterford]], in the south-east of [[Ireland]].
After his death in [[Dublin]] in 1973, his extensive library of books on Georgia and the Caucasus was estimated at £30,000 (worth between £280,000 and £530,000 in 2014).<ref name="odnb" /><ref>[http://www.measuringworth.com/ "Measuring Worth" website]</ref> This library is now part of the [[Indiana University]]'s [[Lilly Library]], which describes it as being 'rich in travel narratives, chronicles and works in linguistics, and [containing] a number of books and some manuscripts in the [[Georgian language]]'.<ref>[http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/collections/overview/history_europe.shtml The Lilly Library: Guide to the Collections]</ref>
==Political career and fascism==
Allen stood unsuccessfully in [[Fermanagh and Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)|Fermanagh and Tyrone]] at the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922 general election]],<ref name="Craig-Fermanagh">{{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |author-link= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 |orig-year=1969 |edition=3rd |year=1983 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn=0-900178-06-X |page=660}}</ref> but was elected seven years later on his next attempt, at the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929 general election]] as the [[Conservative Party (UK)#Conservatives and Unionists (1867–1914)|Unionist]] Member of Parliament (MP) for [[Belfast West (UK Parliament constituency)|Belfast West]].<ref name="Craig-Belfast">{{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |author-link= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 |orig-year=1969 |edition=3rd |year=1983 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn=0-900178-06-X |page=654}}</ref>
He defected from the Unionists in 1931, to join Sir [[Oswald Mosley]]'s [[New Party (Oswald Mosley)|New Party]], but did not contest the [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931 general election]].<ref name="Craig-Belfast" /> He was a
It was believed that assertions he was an [[MI5]] informant were false;<ref>[http://www.statesecrets.co.uk/who/index-a.html Statesecrets.co.uk]</ref> however, documents now available in the National Archive confirm that he was interviewed by MI5 and gave over information regarding the BUF's funding from [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]].<ref>The National Archive (1942), KV 3/35 14. ''British Union evidence of support from Italy'' (1)</ref>
==Personal life==
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*"Note on the Caucasian Snow-Partridge", in ''Georgica, A Journal of Georgian and Caucasian studies'', Nos. 4 & 5
*''Strange Coast'' (1936) (A novel of romance and adventure set in "the Meskhian Republic"—a fictionalised Georgia of the 1920s—which Allen wrote jointly with his second wife, Paula Gellibrand, and which was published under the pseudonym "Liam Pawle")
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mRE9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PR3 The Ukraine: A History]'' (Cambridge University Press, 1940)
*"The Caucasian Borderland", in ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. IC (1942)
*''Guerilla War in Abyssinia'' (1943)
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[[Category:Politicians from County Waterford]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Ulster Unionist Party
[[Category:Members of HM Diplomatic Service]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Belfast constituencies (since 1922)]]
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[[Category:British Union of Fascists politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century British historians]]
[[Category:British fascists]]▼
[[Category:20th-century British male writers]]
[[Category:Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:20th-century British diplomats]]
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