Journalist, writer.
Born at Winnipeg on 25 August 1913, son of railway agent Glen William Allen and Hattie Louise Schram, his family later moved to Oxbow, Saskatchewan. He began a journalistic career as a columnist for the Winnipeg Tribune after covering the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York. In December 1938, he moved to Toronto to write sports for the Toronto Globe and Mail. In December 1941, he enlisted in the Canadian Army and went overseas with the Royal Canadian Artillery. He became a war correspondent in 1943 and was made an officer in the Order of the British Empire for coverage on the western front.Return to Canada after the war, he was an Associate Editor at Maclean’s (1946-1948), left the magazine briefly to write a sports column at the Toronto Telegram, then returned to Maclean’s as its editor (1950-1960) and finally to the Toronto Star. He wrote several books, including The Chartered Libertine (1954), Peace River Country (1958), Ordeal by Fire: Canada 1910-1945 (1961), Ask the Name of the Lion (1962), and The High White Forest (?). None of his writing was set in Manitoba. He died at Toronto, Ontario on 2 December 1966.
See also:
The Man from Oxbow: The Best of Ralph Allen by Christina McCall Newman (editor), McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1967.
Marriage registration [Glen William Allen, Hattie Louise Schram], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Allen dies at 53,” Winnipeg Free Press, 2 December 1966.
“Ralph Allen, 53, dies from cancer,” Winnipeg Tribune, 2 December 1966.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 10 December 2022
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