George Allen

George Allen (26 March 1832 – 5 September 1907) was an English craftsman and engraver, who became an assistant to John Ruskin and then in consequence a publisher. His name persists in publishing through the George Allen & Unwin company.

Early life The son of John and Rebecca Allen, he was born on 26 March 1832 at Newark-on-Trent, and was educated at a private grammar school there. His father died in 1849, and in that year he was apprenticed for four years to an uncle (his mother's brother), a builder in Clerkenwell, London. He became a skilled joiner, and was employed for three and a half years in that capacity on the woodwork of the interior of Dorchester House, Park Lane. Allen and another workman worked for 79 days on a single door in the house, and Ruskin later showed a model of this door to his friends as a specimen of English craftsmanship.

With John Ruskin On the foundation of the Working Men's College in 1854, Allen joined the drawing class, and became one of Ruskin's pupils there. He was offered a post in Queen Victoria's household, working on the furniture of the royal palaces; but he declined it in order to concentrate on work for Ruskin's service. He took on posts of different kinds for 50 years. Antiquary's Books The Casket Series County Churches: Handy Guides to the Old Parish Churches of England Labour Ideal Series The Library Series Memorials of the Counties of England Modern Painters The "Pensées" Series The Pocket Ruskin The Works of John Ruskin (series jointly published in the United States by Longmans, Green & Co.) The Young England Library

Death Allen was one of the original Companions of Ruskin's Guild of St. George. He died, in his seventy-sixth year, on 5 September 1907, at Orpington, and is buried in the parish churchyard there. His wife had died, in her eightieth year, eight months before him. His collection of minerals was acquired after his death by the University of Oxford.