Allen,
or ‘Snodge’ as he was known to his F.G.S. class mates,
died on Thursday 22nd January 2026. He had battled three different cancers for
18 years but they caught up with him just before Christmas 2025 when he was
admitted to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester with a chest infection and
readmitted in January when colon cancer from which he had previously recovered
was found to have returned and rapidly brought him down. Allen was not able to return home again.Ironically perhaps, Allen had been a volunteer in the same hospital for most of the previous 18 years and went there by bus unfailingly week after week to offer support to other cancer patients. In 2024 he was given Leicestershire’s Volunteer of the Year Award beating off stiff competition from across the County.
Allen leaves a wife Dorothy, two children, five grandchildren and a great grandson.
At school Snodge, no one knows where that nickname came from, was very popular with a wide circle of friends but being one of the Aldershot contingent, not someone I (Malcolm Knight) resident in Farnborough and Fleet, saw outside of school. I do however remember being regaled by stories considered racy in the late 1950s of the night life available in the garrison town.
Allen was a keen footballer at school and supported the Aldershot Club thoughout his long life to which he added the Leicester club.
After leaving F.G.S. Allen studied in Rugby and found employment on Gas Turbine development with GEC in Whetstone, Leicestershire. The place where Frank Whittle produced his first jet engines (ably assisted by Lin Pratt’s father and my own in the 1940s).
