The Tsarina's Godson
Second Lieutenant Nicholas Charles Bernard Hesse Allen, 1/5th
Battalion
Harrogate at the end of the 19th century was a
thriving spa town, popular with those who wished to ‘take the waters’. It had
become affluent as it attracted the well-heeled to the resort, many of them
staying for months at a time. The town became a social centre, where members of
the upper echelons of society would gather, and naturally, businesses in what
we would refer to in modern terms as ‘service industries’ grew and prospered in
the town.
One such business, a private hotel on Prospect Place, run by
Mrs Emma Allen from her home in Cathcart House, had established itself as a
favourite among British and European royalty. Queen Victoria had married her
children into the main royal houses of Europe, and her children and
grandchildren patronised resorts like Harrogate as and when their official and
social diaries allowed.
Although the old queen herself never visited Cathcart House,
her daughter-in-law, Princess Alexandra, the Princess of Wales was known to be
a regular visitor, as was her sister, Dagmar, now Maria Feodorovna, the Tsarina of Russia.
In 1894, a princess from one of the minor German royal
houses, Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, who was the fiancée of Dagmar's son Nicholas,
the Russian Tsarevich, was staying at Cathcart House. She was said to be Queen
Victoria’s favourite grandchild and was a frequent visitor to her family in
Great Britain.
Mrs Allen gave birth to a boy and a girl the day before the
arrival of the Princess in Harrogate, and on hearing the news Princess Alix
requested to be their Godmother at the christening the following month. In her
honour, the boy was named Nicholas, after her fiancé, and he also had Hesse
incorporated into his full name, and the girl was named Alix Beatrice after
her.
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| Princess Alix of Hesse |
Before the end of the year, Princess Alix’s fiancé had
become Tsar, and on her marriage to Nicholas, she became Tsarina of Russia.
Despite her elevation to Empress, the Tsarina was not a Godmother in name only,
and she regularly sent lavish gifts to the children which had been made by the
celebrated jeweller Carl Fabergé.
The local press made much of the Allen children’s connection
to the Romanov House. In 1910, Alix Allen was awarded a life saving medal by
the Royal Humane Society after she rescued a drowning boy from the River Wharfe
in June of the previous year. The story ran under the headline ‘Empress’s Godchild
Receives Life-Saving Medal’. In January 1915, when Nicholas Allen was promoted
to the rank of Corporal, the article drew attention to the identity of his
royal Godmother.
Nicholas and Alix Allen were the youngest two of the
children born to the marriage of Christopher and Emma Allen. The other children
were Edwin, Albert and Fred. Christopher was a self-employed plumber, who
eventually took his son, Albert on to work with him. Edwin became an electrical
engineer. Alix helped her mother run the private hotel at Cathcart House. Fred
Emigrated to Canada where he worked as a marine engineer. Albert also went to
Canada with his wife, Elsie.
Nicholas Allen went to school at Western College in
Harrogate, and on leaving school, he took up employment as a bank clerk.
With the exception of Albert, all of the Allen brothers
served as soldiers during the Great War. Edwin served as a corporal in the Army
Service Corps, Fred joined the Canadian Army and served as a serjeant in the
Canadian Army Service Corps. He was awarded the Military Medal in August 1918.
Nicholas Allen enlisted at York into the 5th
Reserve Battalion (later 2/5th Bn), West Yorkshire Regiment on 5th
October 1914. Evidently, he impressed his seniors and officers, as promotion to
Lance Corporal followed six weeks after his enlistment. He was then transferred
to the 1/5th battalion which had been earmarked for overseas
service. After six months as a junior non-commissioned officer, he applied, and
was recommended by his brigade commander, for a commission. Successful, he was
appointed to the rank of Second Lieutenant on 7th April 1915.
Because the 1/5th Battalion was due to embark for France the
following week, and he was considered inexperienced, he was transferred back to
the 2/5th Battalion, which was still in training.
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| 2 Lt NCBH Allen shortly after commissioning |
After three months with the 2/5th Battalion he
was posted to 1/5th Battalion, which recently arrived in the Ypres
area, after moving through Artois in France. He was appointed to the command of
a platoon in B Company, under the command of Captain Peters. It seems that he
failed to impress almost immediately, as by the beginning of September, Captain
Peters had written to the battalion’s adjutant to express his dissatisfaction
with the performance of 2Lt Allen as an officer.
Captain Peters wrote:
“I am not satisfied with 2
Lieut Allen, as he takes no more interest in his men or work than he is forced
to. He has little influence over them, and no initiative. He does very little
unless he is told. Often appears to do no more than look on without being able
to properly supervise.
Since joining this unit, he
does not appear to have made any improvement. He seems unable to understand
that his duty to his men should be his first consideration.”
Captain Wilkinson, usually the battalion’s Adjutant (an administrative role, which included maintaining the discipline amongst the officers in the battalion), was now acting commanding officer of the battalion, owing to Lt Col Wood being in hospital with an, as yet, undiagnosed sickness. He received the letter from Captain Peters, and immediately wrote to Brigade Headquarters. His letter dated 4th September 1915 is shown below.
“I beg to report that 2 Lt
ALLEN NCBH has proved to be a most unsatisfactory officer since he joined this
unit on July 15th 1915, and in my opinion and that of the 2nd
in command, and his OC Coy, he is quite unfitted to be an officer. I therefore
request that this unit may be relieved of his services.
On August 20th I
interviewed him on account of his general unsatisfactory character and also for
a case of neglect of duty and warned him that if no improvement took place, I
should apply for his removal.
He has not improved in any way
and as recently as today, neglected all his morning duties as he did not get up
till 9.45am, although called 3 times.
Report of 2nd in
command and OC Coy attached.”
The report from the 2nd in command of the battalion was equally as scathing as both the other officers’ letters, but as Captain FC Thompson had previously been 2 Lt Allen’s company commander, he felt obliged to add his own opinion, perhaps the harshest of the three. He ended his report thus:
“…I am
strongly of the opinion that it is unsafe to leave him in command of a party of
men.”
The collective reports were sent up the chain of command from Brigade Headquarters, all the way to the staff of Field Marshal French, the Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force. All agreed that Second Lieutenant Allen should go and a recommendation to that effect was sent from the Commander in Chief’s office to the War Office in London. The War Office agreed and ordered that Allen should proceed to England and report his arrival, in writing, to it.
Second Lieutenant Allen wrote to report his arrival in
England from Cathcart House in a short letter dated 21st September
1915. He stated that he was awaiting further instructions.
His instructions eventually came to him, and he wrote to
resign his commission in November 1915, the notification appearing in the
London Gazette on 13th December.
It isn’t recorded, and the officers who dealt with him did
not speculate (at least not on paper) as to why this promising young NCO had
utterly, and seemingly wilfully, failed as a commissioned officer. It seems
that he had been given ample chance by his battalion officers to improve his
performance, but he wasted those chances. Even on the morning his Adjutant and
acting Commanding officer was writing to brigade headquarters, he had stayed in
bed despite being called to attend to his duties.
It was, on the face of it, the end of 2 Lt Allen’s military career, however, the
index card that records the qualification for, and issue of, his medals for the
service he had given during the war states that he further served as a Lieutenant
in the Royal Field Artillery.
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| Winifred Ellis and Nicholas Allen prior to their wedding. |
Numerous searches of various Army Lists for later in the war
have shown that there was no officer of his name commissioned in to the RFA.
The London Gazette shows similar results.
The trail goes cold until 1922, when his marriage to
Winifred Ellis at Potternewton in Leeds was reported on in the local press. By
this time, Nicholas Allen’s parents appear to have separated, and were no
longer at Cathcart House. Emma Allen emigrated to Canada, presumably to be near
her sons, Fred and Albert, where she eventually died.
Nicholas Allen went back to working for the bank after the
war, rising to be being a bank manager in Morecambe, and then an area manager
for the Yorkshire Penny Bank.
He died in Horsforth, Leeds on 23rd December
1974.
Some of the Fabergé items that were sent to Nicholas Allen
by his Godmother, the murdered Tsarina, were acquired by the Pump Room Museum
in Harrogate, where they are, from time to time, displayed. They include a set
of gold and enamelled cufflinks given on his 21st birthday, and an
ornate set of cutlery, which was given as a christening gift.
Main sources:
WO 374/1154 - Officer's Correspondance file 2Lt NCBH Allen
Leeds Mercury
Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer
London Gazette
1939 Register
1911 England Census
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