Henry Erskine Allon

Henry Erskine Allon (16 October 1864 – 3 April 1897) was an English composer.

Biography

Henry Erskine Allon was born on 16 October 1864 to the prominent Nonconformist minister Henry Allon (1818–1892) and his wife, Eliza née Goodman. Allon grew up among four sisters and two brothers, and was educated at Amersham Hall in Caversham, Reading. He first attended University College London, and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated at in 1882. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts there in 1885. At Cambridge he received an English essay prize and graduated with a third in History. His father tried to get him appointed as an inspector of the university, but was dissuaded from this by his friend Matthew Arnold as he suspected the Tory government in power (whose Lord President had the job of appointing inspectors) would be unlikely to appoint Nonconformist inspectors. (Other composers included in this group were William Wallace, Reginald Steggall, Stanley Hawley and Arthur Hinton).

Allon was responsible for about thirty compositions, including six cantatas (among them, "Annie of Lochroyan" and "The Child of Elle"), and a number of solos and sonatas. Allon composed mainly for the piano and piano accompanied by violin. According to Edward Irving Carlyle, writing for the Dictionary of National Biography, his works "showed originality and power", and left his library of musical works to the Cambridge Union Society.