Birthed in Sheffield, Allen attended King Edward VII School for boys, then ended up being a clerk in the steel works of Arthur Balfour, in his extra time going to Sheffield Technical School of Art. Severely injured and having a fabricated leg Allen proceeded to paint and became Balfour’s personal secretary up until the depression made Allen repetitive in 1931. Allen’s very early job is traditionally sensible he quickly established his unique design of streamlined landscape and number studies, which at some point were shown abroad in Canada and America.In the very early
1940s Allen released a collection of articles in The Artist on landscape paint in which he stated his technique.