Robert Allen (1772–1805) was a British journalist and surgeon, famous for having introduced Robert Southey and

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

. A contemporary of Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Bob Allen attended Christ's Hospital and left the school as a Senior Grecian. He attended

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

, where, in his rooms, the historic meeting between Robert Southey and Coleridge took place. He was also an associate of Hazlitt and William Godwin, and a number of scholars have speculated that he was responsible for the acquaintance of Lamb and

William Godwin William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...

. Coleridge lamented in a letter that Godwin was having a negative influence on Allen and had cause him to become a religious sceptic. Allen married a widow much older than himself who had children as old as he was. Lamb is known to have strongly objected to the marriage. Sadly for Allen his wife died shortly after they were married. In 1797 Allen was appointed Deputy Surgeon of the Second Royal Dragoons in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. And in 1802 he spent time in the Lake District with John Stoddart, the brother-in-law of William Hazlitt. Allen practiced as a journalist for a number of years, writing for the periodicals ''The Oracle'', ''The True Briton'', ''The Star'', and ''The Traveller''. But journalism offered Allen little success. Lamb wrote several short reminiscences of Allen included in his essay "Newspapers", and "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago". Leigh Hunt's ''Autobiography'' also contains a panegyric to Allen. Hunt wrote: "Nor shalt thou, their composer, be quickly forgotten, Allen, with the cordial smile, and still more cordial laugh, with which thou wert wont to make the old cloister shake, in thy cognition of some poignant jest of theirs; or the anticipation of some more material, and, peradventure, practical one, of thine own."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Bob British Army regimental surgeons People educated at Christ's Hospital 1772 births 1805 deaths Medical doctors from London Alumni of University College, Oxford