William Allan

Career Religious / Missionary

Biography William Allan served as a cleric in several parishes in London and Suffolk. In 1887 he was sent out to West Africa by the Church Missionary Society to inspect their work in Sierra Leone, Lagos and Niger. His ethnographic collection handed over to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1902, when Allan retired from St Mary's and broke up his collection. [Based upon information compiled by Rachael Sparks 9.12.2003 based upon letters and articles in the Museum's holdings [related document files]].[Alison Petch [as part of 'The Other Within' project 2006-9] 30/11/2006]

Biography References Ashmolean donor index card / Museum related document files

County Unknown

Relationship Other Owner / PRM Source

Archaeological or Ethnographic Ethnography

Collected around 1888

Dates active 1837-?

Donated around 1902

Owned 1902

English collections 2 bronze figures, said to have been cast in England, retrieved from a temple in Bonny, Nigeria in 1888 when it was dismantled under missionary influence and obtained via Archdeacon Dandeson Coates Crowther (qv). Part of a much larger collection of items obtained in the same circumstances, most were not said to be have been cast in England.

Oxford Uni College Unknown

Oxford Uni Education Yes

Oxford Uni date Unknown

Oxford based No

Date in Oxford Unknown

English collection size 2

Connections Henry Balfour / Dandeson Coates Crowther / Harry Allison