Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Theophilus (Theo) George Allen was a New Zealander who came to Australia with his family in the early 1900s. The second youngest of five children of George Josiah Allen, a wholesale saddler, and his wife Mary Hanlon O’Sullivan, he was born in Auckland in 1891. The family lived at Randwick and Theo attended St Aloysius' College at Milsons Point before undertaking medicine in 1911 at the University of Sydney. He graduated in 1916 with Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery and worked at the Balmain Hospital. Also working at Balmain Hospital, undertaking training, was a young nurse named Alice Jane Thompson from Wollongong.

On 6 March 1917 Theo enlisted for war service with in the Australian Medical Corps being granted the rank of Captain. He embarked for overseas in following May and was assigned to the 12th Field Ambulance, arriving in France in late December 1917. On 30 March 1918 at Dernancourt, Captain Allen was wounded in the left forearm by a shell fragment as the 12th Field Ambulance supported advances by 49th, 50th, 51st and 52nd Battalions of the 13th Brigade. He returned to France in July 1918, after recovering from his wound, and was to serve in various relieving positions with units of 12th Brigade and for a time as Regimental Medical Officer with the 48th Battalion as well as with the 46th and 50th Battalions.

During his service overseas he managed to maintain contact with Staff Nurse Alice Thompson who left Australia in June 1917 as part of an Australian nursing contingent that would serve in Salonika, Greece until the end of the war. Alice returned to England from Salonika on 31 December 1918. Also returning with her was her nursing colleague and friend Dorothy Feneley of West Maitland.

Three days after the two Staff Nurses arrival in England, Captain Theo Allen arrived on leave in London from France. Shortly after, on 16 January 1919, Theo and Alice married at St Peter and St Edward Roman Catholic Church, Westminster, London. He is granted an additional week’s leave and during this time Alice and Dorothy embark HMHS Delta on 23 January 1919 for their return to Australia. Captain Theo Allen then returns to duty in France.

Captain Theo Allen returned to Australia in August 1919 and returned to medicine. He established a practice at Dunedoo in central west NSW and in June 1920 his wife, Alice gave birth to daughter. Tragedy struck just two years later when Alice died suddenly from Lysol poisoning – the coroner gave an open verdict as to cause. The couple’s daughter stayed with and was raised by Theo’s married sister, Mary Veech at Wellington - in adulthood becoming a catholic nun known as Sister Loretto.

After returning to Sydney, Theo married Alice’s friend, Dorothy Mary Feneley at St John’s Catholic Cathedral, West Maitland in December 1924.  They were to have three children and lived most of their married life at Randwick, with Dr Allen taking up employment with the Repatriation Commission. The couple were, over several decades, very prominent in the Catholic Church through their support of charitable organisations and educational facilities

Dorothy died at Randwick in 1955 and was buried in the Feneley family plot at Campbells Hill Cemetery, West Maitland.

In 1960, Theo married Harriett Vera Whitta (nee Burns) at the age of 71.

Dr Theophilus George Allen died at Randwick on 7 August 1963 and was interred at Waverley Cemetery. His third wife, Harriett, died in 1972.