William Evan Allan
{{Short description|Australian centenarian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use Australian English|date=February 2014}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= William Evan Allan
|image=
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|birth_date= {{birth date|1899|06|24|df=yes}}
|death_date= {{Death date and age|2005|10|18|1899|06|24|df=yes}}
|birth_place= Bega, New South Wales
|death_place= Essendon, Victoria
|placeofburial=
|nickname=
|allegiance= Australia
|branch= Royal Australian Navy
|serviceyears= 1914–1947
|rank= Lieutenant
|unit=
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- First World War
- Asian and Pacific theatre
- Second World War
- Battle of the Atlantic
- South West Pacific theatre
{{tree list/end}}
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William Evan Crawford Allan (24 July 1899 – 18 October 2005) was, at the age of 106, one of Australia's last living veterans of the First World War,{{cite news |title=Roll of Honor – The Last of the Few |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123011726/?match=1&terms=%22William%20Evan%20Allan%22 |access-date=19 January 2025 |work=The Age |date=7 November 1999 |location=Melbourne, Australia |page=8}} and the last remaining Australian who saw active service in both world wars.{{cite web|url=http://www.navy.gov.au/Lieutenant_William_Evan_Crawford_Allan |title=Lieutenant William Evan Crawford Allan |accessdate=2008-09-15 |last=Mitchell |first=Brett |date=December 2006 |publisher=Royal Australian Navy |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108230233/http://www.navy.gov.au/Lieutenant_William_Evan_Crawford_Allan |archivedate=8 January 2009 }}{{cite news |title=Final Australia WWI veteran dies |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4351852.stm |access-date=19 January 2025 |publisher=BBC News |date=18 October 2005}} Allan was a career sailor in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), serving from 1914 to 1947.
Early life
Allan was born in Bega in the then British colony of New South Wales,{{cite news |title=Lieutenant Evan Allan. Last Australian sailor to have served in both World Wars and was rescued from the sea off Nova Scotia |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/753345576/?match=1&terms=%22William%20Evan%20Crawford%20Allan%22&article=33c14d4b-356c-4b13-abc0-23f234e48513 |access-date=19 January 2025 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=20 October 2005 |location=London, England |page=25}} eighteen months before the Commonwealth of Australia came into being.
Naval career
He joined the RAN in March 1914 at the age of fourteen as an ordinary seaman second class.{{cite news |title=Veteran's death marks end of an era |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/veterans-death-marks-end-of-an-era-20051018-gdm9tw.html |access-date=19 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=18 October 2005}} When war was declared on 14 August 1914, he was 15 and serving aboard the training ship {{HMAS|Tingira}}, which was docked in Rose Bay, Sydney. He served on board {{HMAS|Encounter|1902|6}} until the end of the war, and became an able seaman in 1915. When he was eighteen, he survived the Spanish flu pandemic, which killed over fifty of his shipmates on a transport voyage between Cape Town and Sierra Leone.
Between the world wars, Allan was rescued by his captain after falling overboard in the North Atlantic during a storm. In 1932, he was promoted to chief petty officer.
Allan went on to serve on HMS Moreton Bay and HMAS Ladava in the Second World War. He retired from the Navy on 30 October 1947, after serving thirty-four years, being granted his war service rank of lieutenant in 1948.
He met his wife, Ida Gwendoline Wright, while his ship was docked in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1924, and he continued to write to her until his ship returned to Vancouver in 1941. They married on that return trip and sailed to Australia as newlyweds on SS Mariposa, via Hawaii – only twelve days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After his retirement, they lived at Somerville on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, where he farmed.
Later life
Allan was awarded the 80th Anniversary Armistice Remembrance Medal by the Government of Australia in 1999,{{cite news |title=New decoration, new century for naval veteran |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123483282/?match=1&terms=%22William%20Evan%20Allan%22 |access-date=19 January 2025 |work=The Age |date=24 July 1999 |location=Melbourne, Australia}} and lived in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon, Victoria, until his death at the age of 106. He was given a state funeral at HMAS Cerberus on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria.{{cite news |title=Last active WWI veteran laid to rest |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/last-active-wwi-veteran-laid-to-rest-20051026-gdmbfi.html |access-date=19 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=26 October 2005}}
Honours and awards
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- King George V Silver Jubilee Medal
- King George VI Coronation Medal
- 80th Anniversary Armistice Remembrance Medal (awarded 21 April 1999)
- Centenary Medal (awarded 1 January 2002)
References
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External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050616120822/http://victoriansatwar.net/archives/allent1.html Interview with W. E. Allan]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060515030031/http://www.defence.gov.au/news/navynews/editions/4820/topstories/STORY01.HTM Navy News report of his death and funeral]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, William Evan}}
Category:Australian men centenarians
Category:Australian military personnel of World War I
Category:Royal Australian Navy personnel of World War II
Category:Royal Australian Navy sailors
Category:Royal Australian Navy officers
Category:Military personnel from New South Wales