James Allen

James Allen (1806 – 21 March 1886), nicknamed "Dismal Jemmy", was an English-born writer, journalist and newspaper owner in Australia and New Zealand.

Biography Allen was born in Birmingham and educated at Horton College. He was for some time a reporter on the London Morning Post, and was an associate of Charles Dickens.

He emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia, arriving in Adelaide in 1839, and shortly after became editor of The Southern Australian. In 1842 he purchased for £600 the South Australian Register from George Stevenson, who was withdrawing from journalism, and sold it to John Stephens. A notable reporter and sub-editor in the paper was W. M. Akhurst.

He then went to Melbourne, where he edited the Melbourne Herald and started the Mail, the first penny evening paper issued in that city.

In 1865 Allen moved to Hobart, Tasmania, and edited the Hobart Mercury, afterwards starting the Evening Mail. He then went to New Zealand, and conducted the Auckland Evening News until 1870, when he returned to Victoria and purchased The Camperdown Chronicle, of which he remained owner till 1880. Allen published a "History of Australia" in 1882, before dying in Melbourne in 1886, then reckoned to be Australia's oldest journalist.