Henry Erskine Allon

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

Biography
Henry Erskine Allon's father, Henry Allon, 1879.

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.[1][2] He attended University College, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1882 and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1885.[3] At Cambridge, he received an English essay prize, combined with a third in History. His father tried to get Allon appointed to the university's inspectorate, but was dissuaded by Matthew Arnold, as he suspected the Tory government in power (whose Lord President had the job of appointing inspectors) would not be happy to appoint nonconformist inspectors.[4]

Allon composed and published many musical works, including two cantatas, 'Annie of Lochroyan' and 'The Child of Elle' chamber music, piano solos, and cantatas, mainly for the pianoforte or the pianoforte with the violin.[1][2] Clyde Binfield noted that while "there was nothing Celtic in his ancestry", his compositions often bore Scottish inspired names, such as 'The Maid of Colonsay' and 'May Margaret'.[4] According to Edward Irving Carlyle, writing for the Dictionary of National Biography, his works "showed originality and power",[2] and his brief biography in Alumni Cantabrigienses summed him up as "a musician of great promise".[3] Binfield assessed him more bitterly, declaring "it was all promise, [as] he died in his early thirties".[4] Allon studied music under William Henry Birch and Frederic Corder and was a vigorous promoter of, and contributor to, the New Musical Quarterly Review, which he had assisted in founding.[1][2][3]

Despite his father's strong nonconformist zeal, Allon lapsed from his father's faith. He instead became a member of CUNU, a Congregationalist and interdenominational religious organisation.[4]

Allon died on 3 April 1897, aged 32, from cerebral meningitis.[1] He left £5966 13s 8d in his will, approximately £466,428 in 2017 GBP,[5] and left his library of musical works to the Cambridge Union Society.[1][2][3]

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References
  1. Kaye, Elaine (2004). "Allon, Henry (1818–1892)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/411. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Carlyle, Edward Irving (1901). "Allon, Henry" . Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. Venn, John; Venn, J. A., eds. (1940). "Allon, Henry Erskine". Alumni Cantabrigienses, Vol. 2: 1752–1900, Pt. 1: Abbey – Challis. Cambridge University Press. p. 44. ISBN 9781108036115.
  4. Binfield, Clyde (July 1993). "Hymns and an Orthodox Dissenter: In Commemoration of Bernard Lord Manning, 1892-1941" (PDF). Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society. 5 (2): 86–109.
  5. Converted from 1900 to 2017 using: "Currency converter: 1270–2017". The National Archives.

Further reading
  • "Obituary: Henry Erskine Allon". The Times. 6/8 April 1897. Check date values in: |date= (help)
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