Irvin Department of Rare
Books and Special Collections
University of South Carolina Libraries
Clifford Allen (Lord Allen
of Hurtwood) Papers, 1911-1962
Collection: Mss. 1979:1
Contact information:
Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections
Ernest F. Hollings Special
Collections Library
University of South Carolina
1322 Greene Street
Columbia SC 29208
(803) 777-3847
(803) 777-3842 fax
email: tclrare@mailbox.sc.edu
www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/rarebook.html
©2010 University of South
Carolina Libraries
Summary
Title: Clifford
Allen (Lord Allen of Hurtwood) Papers, 1911-1962
Collection Number: Mss. 1979:1
Creator: Clifford Allen
Extent: 7.7 cu.
ft (23 archival boxes)
Administrative Information
Provenance: Purchase, 1966.
Processed
by: Jessica Kross.
Access
Restrictions: Open to
research.
Preferred
Citation: [item], Clifford Allen
Papers, Rare Books and Special
Collections, University of South Carolina Libraries.
Publication Rights: All rights reside with the estate of the
creator. For
permission to reproduce or publish, please contact Rare Books and
Special
Collections.
Chronology
Reginald Clifford
Allen
Born: May 9, 1889
1905-1908 University
College Bristol.
1908-1911 Peterhouse
College, Cambridge.
1911-1915 Secretary
of the Daily Citizen.
1912-1915 Founder and
Chairman of the University Socialist Federation.
1914 Published
Is Germany Right and Britain Wrong?
1915-1919 Chairman,
No-Conscription Fellowship.
1917 Marriage
to Marjory Gill.
1917-1918 Imprisoned
for refusing military service; contracts tuberculosis in prison.
1920 Visited
Russia. Met with Lenin. Suffered physical breakdown while there.
1922 Treasurer,
Independent Labour Party.
1922 Birth
of Joan Collete Allen.
1923-1925 Business
Manager, New Leader.
1924-1925 Chairman,
Independent Labour Party.
1925-1930 Director,
the Daily Herald.
1932 Peerage,
Lord Allen of Hurtwood.
1932 Published
LabourŐs Future at Stake.
1932-1933 Member of
Executive Board, National Labour Party.
1934 Published
BritainŐs Political Future.
1935 Visited
Germany. Met with Hitler.
1936 Published
Peace in Our Time.
1936-1937 Chairman,
Next Five Years Group.
1937 Visited
Germany. Met with Hitler.
1938 Visited
Berlin and Prague to help in Czech Crisis.
1939 Died
in Switzerland. Ashes scattered on Lake Geneva.
Scope
and Contents Note
This collection documents the political life and works of the British pacifist,
propagandist, and leftist organizer Reginald Clifford Allen, Lord Allen of
Hurtwood, (1889-1939). The archive is a comprehensive collection of the
authorŐs professional correspondence, manuscripts and speeches. It was acquired
by the university in the mid- 1960s from AllenŐs widow, Lady Allen, through the
intercession of the British historian Martin Gilbert, who held a visiting
position at the University of South Carolina after the completion of his book
on Allen, Plough My Own Furrow: The Story
of Lord Allen of Hurtwood as Told Through His Writings and Correspondence
(1965).
Clifford Allen was
part of a group of left-leaning conscientious objectors and pacifists who chose
prison rather than conscription during World War I. His prison experience left
him with the tuberculosis that cost him a political career and periodically
immobilized him. It killed him in 1939.
Allen was an organizer,
publisher, executive secretary, fund-raiser, treasurer, speechifier, newspaper
op-ed and letter writer and later broadcast debater. His greatest political influence
came in the early 1920s when the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald,
assumed government. MacDonald later engineered the peerage that placed Allen, an
avowed Socialist, in the House of Lords. These papers document the immense
amount of time and energy Allen spent trying to further the causes of peace and
progressivism in inter-war England. Additional notes and descriptions occur at
the beginning of each series in the finding aid.
Summary
Series
Box
1. Biography, CVs, Personal Documents
1
2. Correspondence
1-9
3. Speeches, Published Materials,
Unpublished
Manuscripts,
and Newspaper Clippings 9-19
4. Organizational Materials
20-22
5. Germany and Europe, 1930s
23
6. Oversized Materials
Oversized
folder
Container List
Series 1: Biography, CVs, Personal Documents
This series contains published materials about Allen and some personal
materials by him.
Box Folder
1 1. Obituaries and notices of the memorial services.
1 2. Remembrance of Lord Allen after his death.
1 3. Reflections by former colleagues on his leadership of the Non-Conscription Fellowship.
1 4. Post-WW II articles on Allen's life and career.
1 5. C.A. to B. Longstaff, 1937-1938; Longstaff to A. Barratt Brown after C.A.'s death about the publication of Longstaff's book on conscientious objectors.
1 6. Notes on proposed book on Allen, unidentified, but likely by Catherine
Marshall. There is some speculation the notes could be by Bertrand Russell.
1 7. Arthur Marwick's proposal for a life of Allen.
1 8. Typed extracts from Allen's personal diary, January-September, 1918
1 9. Typed extracts from Allen's Guest Book, 1926-1931
Series 2: Correspondence (1911-1938)
This series includes primarily organizational and political correspondence with a small percentage of personal letters included. The bulk of the correspondence consists of carbon copies of letters sent by Allen in his official capacities with left-leaning organizations such as the Non-Conscription Fellowship, Independent Labour Party, and Next Five Years Group. Allen was also an experienced and self-described propagandist; letters to the editor of various newspapers, as well as attempts to launch left-leaning newspapers appear in this correspondence. The organization is partially chronological but also institutional where previous users have collected the materials. After the general correspondence there are two other groupings: the first is concerned with the organization of the Next Five Years Group, and the second with Allen's efforts to free German political prisoners including Hans Litten, and Germany. Researchers should check all relevant folders as correspondence from a particular date may appear in several places. Some speeches are also included within the correspondence. Some undated letters or partially dated letters are included where it seems most appropriate or where previous organizers of the material have placed them. There is one folder of undated or fragmentary correspondence.
Notable correspondents in this series include: Clement Atlee (9/30/1930); Stanley Baldwin (11/26/1932); Ernest Bevin (11/30/1928, 8/9/1929, 8/?/1929, 3/22/1930, 1/1/1932); Havelock Ellis (10/14/1934); Anthony Eden (7/31/1936); E. M. Forster (9/30/1934, 10/10/1934); Aldous Huxley (10/3/1936?); Julian Huxley (6/10/1935, 11/25/1935, 1/9/1936, 2/19/1936, 2?/1936); Harold Laski (8/5/1929); Bronislaw Malinowski (5/9/1938, 5/15/1938); Lady Ottoline Morrell (11/20/1920, 12/30/1920, early 1921); Oswald Moseley (9/20/1924); Joachim von Ribbentrop (2/25/1935; 12,8,1935; 12/9/1936; Bertrand Russell (5/6/1918, 8/5,1918, 8/19/1918, 8/26/1918); Arnold Toynbee (6/11/1935, 8/7/1936?); Eamon De Valera (2/26/1923); H.G. Wells (12/1932?); and Leonard Woolf (6/6/1935).
There is extensive correspondence with Malcolm MacDonald, son and political operative of Ramsay MacDonald, throughout this series. There is also correspondence with Norman Angell, Ramsay MacDonald, Harold MacMillan and Stanley Unwin.
Box Folder
1 10. Note to C. A. in Daily Herald material, n.d.
11. "Letters from Cambridge," 1911
12. Letters to father, 22 March, 1912 - 24 September, 1912
13. Letters to wife, 13 August, 1931 - August, 1938
14. Letters to daughter Polly, 31 January, 1936 - 14 October, 1938
15. Personal letters, 1927-1938 (3 items)
16. Correspondence concerning The Daily Citizen 1 Feb., 1912 – 11 Dec., 1913
17. Correspondence concerning The Daily Citizen 3 Feb., 1914 – 9 Sept., 1917 and final closing of account for 'D.C.,' 23 Dec., 1931
18. Open letter to Lloyd George 31 May, 1917
19. Allen's letters from prison, 24 Mar., 1917; 21 Apr., 1917; 17 May, 1917; 31 May, 1917 (typed copies)
20. Letters from N.C.F. leaders in prison including Bertrand Russell, Fennner Brockway, and John P. F. Fletcher. (typed copies, 1918)
21. Illness, recuperation, and marriage, 1920-1922
2 1. Correspondence 10 January, 1921 - 28 December, 1925 and undated
2. Correspondence 9 January, 1926 - 31 December, 1931
3. Correspondence 1 January, 1932 - 29 January, 1932 and undated
4. Correspondence 1 February, 1932 - 31 March, 1932
3 1. Correspondence 1 April, 1932 - 31 May, 1932
2. Correspondence 1 June, 1931 - 29 July, 1932
3. Correspondence 1 August, 1932 - 30 September, 1932
4. Correspondence 1 October, 1932 - 31 December, 1932
4 1. Correspondence 2 January, 1933 - 31 May, 1933
2. Correspondence 1 June, 1933 - 31 October, 1933
3. Correspondence 1 November, 1933 - 17 December, 1933 and undated
4. Correspondence 1 January, 1934 - 28 February, 1934
5 1. Correspondence 1 March, 1934 - 31 May, 1934
2. Correspondence 1 June, 1934 - 28 December, 1934
3. Correspondence 1 January, 1935 - 27 March, 1935
4. Correspondence 2 April, 1935 - 31 May, 1935
5. Correspondence 1 June, 1935 - 30 June, 1935
6 1. Correspondence 1 July, 1935 - 31 July, 1935
2. Correspondence 1 August, 1935 - 30 September, 1935
3. Correspondence 1 October, 1935 - 31 October, 1935
4. Correspondence 2 November, 1935 - 31 December, 1935
5. Correspondence 2 January, 1936 - 30 June, 1936
6. Correspondence 6 July, 1936 - 31 December, 1936
7 1. Correspondence 1 January, 1937 - 30 June, 1937
2. Correspondence 1 July, 1937 - 30 December, 1937
3. Correspondence 13 January, 1938 - 2 December, 1938
4. Correspondence, undated fragments
5. Typed extracts of correspondence from the 1930s
6. Correspondence: Next Five Years Group 18 November, 1935 - 31 January, 1936
7. Correspondence: Next Five Years Group 1 February, 1936 - 29 February, 1936
8. 1. Correspondence: Next Five Years Group 2 March, 1936 - 31 March, 1936
2. Correspondence: Next Five Years Group 2 April, 1936 - 5 June, 1936
3. Correspondence: Next Five Years Group 2 June, 1936 - 31 December, 1936
4. Correspondence: Next Five Years Group 1 January, 1937 - 22 December, 1937
9 1. Correspondence: political prisoners, Germany 30 January, 1934 - 17 December, 1935
2. Correspondence: political prisoners, Germany 1 January, 1936 - 31 December, 1936
3. Correspondence: political prisoners, Germany 1 January, 1937 - 28 October, 1938
Series 3: Speeches, Published Materials,
Unpublished Manuscripts, and Newspaper Clippings (1911-1939)
Clifford Allen was a prolific spokesman for the causes in which he believed. He delivered speeches and granted interviews; composed articles and letters to the editors of various newspapers and journals; and wrote books. This series contains speeches in whole or fragmentary—he often recycled material, speech outlines, and other manuscript materials, some never published, but overall intended to appeal to a popular audience. Much of this material is undated and so is not in chronological or any other particular order. Speech outlines and newspaper clippings might also be found in the correspondence and other series.
Box Folder
5. Lord Allen's speeches to the House of Lords, 1932-1938
6. "Student, Citizen, and Socialist," 1913?
7. Speeches and articles on domestic politics, 1930s
11 1. Speeches and articles on domestic politics, 1930s
2. Speeches and articles on education, n.d., 1936
3. Lord Allen on the BBC, n.d., 1932, 1933
4. Lord Allen on pacifism, n.d., 1933, 1936, 1937
5. Speech outlines, n.d.
12 1. Speech outlines, n.d.
2. Speech outlines, fragments, n.d.
3. Speech outlines, 25 February, 1932 - 6 June, 1933
4. Speech outlines, 29 July, 1933 - 14 December, 1933
13 1. Speech outlines, 6 January, 1934 - 23 February, 1934
2. Speech outlines, 14 March, 1934 - 13 November, 1934
3. Speech outlines, 17 November, 1934 - 25 February, 1935
4. Speech outlines, 27 February, 1935 - April, 1935
14 1. Speech outlines, 1 April, 1935 - 13 June, 1935
2. Speech outlines, 21 June, 1935 - 29 September, 1935
3. Speech outlines, 12 October, 1935 - 7 December, 1935
4. Speech outlines, 9 January, 1936 - 29 July, 1936
15 1. Speech outlines, 15 October, 1936 - 18 December, 1936
2. Speech outlines, 13 March, 1937 - 20 April, 1937
3. Speech outlines, 27 April, 1937 - 5 October, 1937
4. Speech outlines, 9 October, 1937 - 17 November, 1937
16 1. Speech outlines, 23 November, 1937 - 8 March, 1938
2. Speech outlines, 12 March, 1938 - 27 July, 1938
3. Correspondence from Catherine Marshall and John W. Graham about Graham's Book Conscription and Conscience. Copy of Allen's preface; reviews.
4. Incomplete typescript of proposed booklet On Active Service, intro about Allen and N.C.F. by Bertrand Russell
5. Mss. of proposed work on politics and society, unpublished
17 1-4. Mss. of book on conscription and C.Os. (4 folders)
18 1-3. Newspaper clippings, University Socialist Federation, (3 folders) 1911-1915, n.d.
4. Newspaper clippings, The Daily Citizen, 1914-1915
5. Newspaper clippings on war, the I.L.P., conscription, the N.C.F. and Clifford Allen, May 1914 - April, 1916
6. Printed matter on N.C.F. including copies of The Labour Leader, The Herald, The Friend, The New Statesman, John Bull, and The Christian Commonwealth, 1914-1917
19 1. Newspaper clippings on war, conscription, the N.C.F. and Clifford Allen, 11 April, 1916 - 4 February, 1922
2. Newspaper clippings, I.L.P., 1920-1924, 1925, n.d.
3. Newspaper clippings, Labour politics, 1926-1929
4. Newspaper clippings, The Daily Citizen, 1925, n.d.
5. Newspaper clippings, 1930s
6. Newspaper clippings, 1931-1932
7. Published articles and pamphlets, 1933-1938
8. Articles and clippings, 1930-1939
Series 4: Organizational Materials.
Clifford Allen was an organizer and administrator—the go-to person that every organization needs both to get started and to continue functioning. This series includes minutes, agendas, budgets, newsletters, newspapers, reports and other material from organizations such as the No-Conscription Fellowship, the Labour and Socialist International, and The Next Five Years Group. Included in these folders are correspondence, speech outlines and newspaper clippings pertaining to various organizations.
Box Folder
20 1. Clifford Allen's official notices from the Army, 1916-1920
2. Typed and handwritten notes on organization of N.C.F., prison activities of C.A. and others, 18 April, 1916 - August, 1917
3. Photocopied material on Clifford Allen. 1) Case before Southwestern Police Court, Lavender Hill 31 July, 1916, 2) Defense before Court Martial at Newhaven N.C.C. Camp, 12 December, 1916
4. The "Wakefield Absolutists" affair, September 1918
5. Speech outlines for N.C.F. and Socialist groups, n.d.
6. Conscription Board correspondence, September, 1915 - May, 1922
7. Photocopied materials on C.O.s in prison and prison conditions
8. Unpublished mss. by A.M. Sanders on C.O. experiences, with correspondence between Sanders and Lady Allen, n.d.
9. N.C.F., speeches, broadsides, organizational material, n.d.
10. Anti-War and Anti-Conscription propaganda by organizations other than the N.C.F.
11. N.C.F Propaganda leaflets and related materials, 6 January, 1916 - 14 September, 1918, n.d.
12. Printed organizational materials of the N.C.F., 1915-1919
21 1. Duplicate copies of N.C.F. printed organizational material
2. Transcriptions, N.C.F. national convention, 27 November, 1915. Clifford Allen, Chair.
3. Transcriptions, N.C.F. national convention, 8 April, 1916 and other N.C.F. convention materials.
4. Controversy over why C.A. resigned as I.L.P. Chairman in 1925
5. With the Labour (I.L.P) delegation in Soviet Russia, 1920, correspondence and clippings
6. N.C.F. materials, including minutes of national convention, 2 August, 1919
7. J. Ramsay MacDonald's ideas on The New Leader
8. Miscellaneous. 1912-1938. Not Daily Citizen
9. Materials on The Daily Citizen, 1915
10. Printed material The Daily Citizen, 1912-1917
11. Daily Herald memoranda, 16 November, 1927 - 25 February, 1929
22 1. "The Labour and Socialist International," 28 August, 1923 - 30 October, 1924
2. "The Labour and Socialist International," November - December, 1924
3. "The Labour and Socialist International," 8 January - 15 January, 1925
4. "The Labour and Socialist International," notes, minutes of administrative committee, 26 January, 19--?
5. Newspaper excerpts, 1924-1925, n.d.
6-7. Organizational and Printed Matter on Next Five Years Group (2 folders)
8. Next Five Years Group, newspaper clippings
Series 5: Germany and Europe, 1930s
The deteriorating conditions in Europe and threat of Nazi Germany posed immense problems for pacifists. Clifford Allen was both the receiver of information and an active gatherer of it, visiting Germany in 1936 and 1938. This series includes letters, reports, and newspaper clippings, including reports by the Quaker Corder Catchpool on conditions in Europe. Other materials on Europe and the impending war will be found in other series. AllenŐs attempts to free German political prisoners are included here and also documented in Series 2, Correspondence.
Box Folder
23 1. Incomplete or unidentifiable letters, 1930s
2. Two letters to the editor, The Times, 1934/5?; Manchester Guardian 20 October, 1938
3. Clippings from German newspapers, 1930s
4. Trip to Germany, 1936
5. Report on C. Allen's visit to Germany, March 1938
6. Newspaper clippings on political prisoners in Germany, 1935-1940
7. Photocopied and typed material on German (Nazi) political prisoners
8. Undated material on Nazi political prisoners
9. Private reports by Corder Catchpool
10. Situation papers on occupied Europe by Corder Catchpool, 1936-1938
11. Reports on international affairs sent to Lord Allen
Series 6: Oversized Materials
1 folder containing:
1 photostatic copy of an original portrait of Clifford Allen by his brother in law, Colin Gill.
Pages from four German newspapers concerning Jewish issues, 1935-1936