Reginald Clifford Allen, the son of Walter Allen, a drapery merchant, was born in Newport, South Wales, on 9th May 1889. Educated at Berkhamstead School and University College, Bristol, where in 1907 he won a scholarship to Peterhouse College, Cambridge.

Walter Allen, an Anglican and strong supporter of the Conservative Party, was disappointed when his son developed left-wing political opinions at university. Allen was elected president of the Fabian Society at Cambridge and his impressive performances in the debates at the Cambridge Union brought him to the attention of Sidney Webb who arranged for him and G. D. H. Cole, his contemporary at Oxford University, to join the Fabian Society Executive.

After leaving university Clifford Allen was employed as a manager of the first Labour Party daily newspaper, the Daily Citizen. Working for the newspaper brought him into contact with Ramsay MacDonald. The two men became close friends and both shared the same socialist and pacifist views. In 1914 Allen wrote a pamphlet, Is Germany Right and England Wrong?, where he argued against Britain becoming involved in an European war.

When war was declared Allen joined with another young pacifist, Fenner Brockway, to form the No-Conscription Fellowship (NCF), an organisation that encouraged men to refuse war service. The group received support from public figures such as Philip Snowden, Bruce Glasier, Robert Smillie, and Rev. John Clifford. Bertrand Russell, also joined, but as a result, was sacked from his post as a lecturer at Cambridge University.

At first the organisation carried out a nationwide political and propaganda crusade against both the war and the introduction of compulsory military service. After the passing of the Military Service Act, the NCF mounted a vigorous campaign against the punishment and imprisonment of conscientious objectors.

As a pacifist Clifford Allen refused to serve in the British Armed Forces and as a result served 16 months in prison. Unwilling to co-operate with the prison authorities, Allen was placed in solitary confinement and put on a diet of bread and water. Suffering from tuberculosis and close to death, he was released in December 1917.

The Non-Conscription Fellowship dissolved after the war. Allen was still very ill and had lost the use of one lung as a result of the prison-contracted tuberculosis. He returned to his activities as a member of the Independent Labour Party and in 1921 he was selected as their candidate in the safe-seat in the Gorbals in Glasgow. However, ill-health forced him to withdraw from the contest.

Clifford Allen worked closely with H. N. Brailsford, the new editor of the the ILP newspaper, the New Leader (the former Labour Leader). As chairman of the party, Allen helped to formulate ILP policy with pamphlets such as Putting Socialism Into Practice (1924), The ILP and Revolution (1925) and Socialism in Our Time (1926).

After resigning as chairman of the ILP he helped manage the Daily Herald, a newspaper now owned by the Labour Party and the TUC. Allen was also kept busy using his contacts with wealthy pacifists to raise funds for the Labour Party.

Allen surprised his left-wing friends when he decided to support the National Government formed by Ramsay MacDonald in 1931. MacDonald gave him a peerage and as Baron Allen of Hurtwood, supported the government in the House of Lords. Allen gradually became disillusioned with Ramsay MacDonald's administration and began to concentrate more on his work with the League of Nations Union.

Ostracized by the members of the Labour Party who interpreted Allen's actions as a betrayal of socialism, Allen formed his own political organisation. Based on ideas expressed in his book Britain's Political Future (1934), The Next Five Years Group (NFYG) attempted to develop a political programme that could be endorsed by leading figures from all the main political parties. Although the NFYG obtained considerable support from national newspapers and the former prime minister, David Lloyd George, the group was eventually destroyed by internal conflicts.

Allen also formed the Anglo-German Group, a collection of politicians, journalists and academics with the objective of reducing tensions between Britain and Germany. The group developed a comprehensive plan for a new European settlement and although Clifford Allen met Hitler, the German leader showed little interest in a negotiated agreement. Accepting that war now seemed likely, Allen began to make plans to form an organisation that would resist military conscription.

In December 1938 Clifford Allen became seriously ill and moved to a Swiss sanatorium. He died there, aged forty-nine, on 3rd March, 1939.

 

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