Julian Phelps Allan

Julian Phelps Allan, formerly Eva Dorothy Allan, (22 June 1892 – 31 January 1996) was an English sculptor active between 1923 and 1960. In addition to her sculpting, she served in both the First and Second World Wars, eventually becoming a colonel in the Auxiliary Territorial Service and the first President of the ATS War Office Selection Board.

Early life and education Allan was born Eva Dorothy Allan in Millbrook, Southampton in 1892.

During World War I, she served as a captain with the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps in France from 1917 to 1919. Based near Dieppe, Allan was in charge of a camp of 200 people. She was awarded a Landseer Scholarship in 1923 and won the Royal Academy's Gold Medal in 1925.

In 1926 Allan went to Florence as a pupil of Libero Andreotti. She also studied under Eric Gill.

As an artist Allan researched and studied throughout her professional life, visiting Yugoslavia in 1933; Croatia (where she met Ivan Meštrović in Zagreb) in 1936; she went to France to study Romanesque art after World War II; and in 1954, Serbia and Yugoslavia to research Byzantine wall-painting .

From about 1950 to 1970 Allan was based in Scotland, living in Balerno, Edinburgh, where she had a studio that was later taken over by the sculptor Michael Snowden. Allan, who found it difficult to get work in studios or workshops due to being a woman, may also have felt that for her work to be "taken more seriously" she needed a masculine name. However, Allan made it clear that even though she had changed her name, she preferred to retain female pronouns and in correspondence she was addressed as "Miss Julian P. Allan".

In World War II, Allan served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service where she became a colonel, and was the first President of the A.T.S. War Office Selection Board. She was subsequently awarded the O.B.E.

Allan was registered blind by 1974, and went deaf in later life.

Death Julian Phelps Allan died at 103 years old on 31 January 1996 in Buckinghamshire, England.