Sir Harold Egbert Allan (15 March 1895 – 18 February 1953) was a Jamaican politician, legislator and statesman.
Early life
Allan grew up in
Portland Parish
Portland, with its capital town Port Antonio, is a parish located on Jamaica's northeast coast. It is situated to the north of St Thomas and to the east of St Mary in Surrey County. It is one of the rural areas of Jamaica, containing part ...
. He was educated at
Mico College, and after graduating became assistant master at Calabar Elementary School, then headmaster at Titchfield Upper School. In 1919, he founded the Capitol Theatre which was the first place to show
motion picture
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
s in the parish.
[
]
Political career
Allan was elected a member of the Portland Parochial Board in 1928, and was elected for the legislative seat of Portland in 1935. Following unemployment riots in 1938, he visited the United Kingdom to discuss the financial problems in Jamaica with the British government. The following year, he helped establish the Land Settlement system and Unemployment Relief and Rehabilitation Centre in Kingston's west end.[ He was a key figure in establishing the Jamaican constitution in 1944.]Jamaican Labour Party
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is one of the two major political parties in Jamaica, the other being the People's National Party (PNP). While its name might suggest that it is a social democratic party (as is the case for "Labour" parties in sever ...
government leader Alexander Bustamante
Sir William Alexander Clarke Bustamante (born William Alexander Clarke; 24 February 1884 – 6 August 1977) was a Jamaican politician and labour leader, who, in 1962, became the first prime minister of Jamaica.
Early life and education
He was ...
, and was appointed Minister for Finance and General Purposes in 1945. Two years later, he was appointed representative for Jamaica at the Trade Conference in London.[
Allan received an ]Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
in 1943. He was knighted in 1948, becoming the first Afro-Jamaican to receive this honour.
Death and legacy
Allan died on 18 February 1953.[ In 1979, his wife Lady Edris (née Trottman) Allan donated his papers to the Civil Rights leaders collection at the ]Amistad Research Center
The Amistad Research Center (ARC) is an independent archives and manuscripts repository in the United States that specializes in the history of African Americans and ethnic minorities. It is one of the first institutions of its kind in the United ...
in . The Center made microfilm
Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...
copies of his papers, and gave them to the Institute of Jamaica
The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), founded in 1879, is the country's most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organisation:[Jamaican Archives
Jamaican may refer to:
* Something or someone of, from, or related to the country of Jamaica
* Jamaicans, people from Jamaica
* Jamaican English, a variety of English spoken in Jamaica
* Jamaican Patois, an English-based creole language
* Culture ...]
and the University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...
.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, Harold Egbert
1895 births
1953 deaths
Jamaican Knights Bachelor
20th-century Jamaican politicians
Members of the Order of the British Empire
African diaspora in Jamaica