Researching William Allan

Allan was born in Dundee, the son of engineer James Allan. His father suffered financial failure, causing Allan to begin work as an apprentice at age 10. He emigrated to the United States, working for several years in Paterson, New Jersey before returning to Glasgow. He began his professional career was as a steamship engineer in the early years of construction of these vessels and his business was the Scotia engineering works in Sunderland, England. He was also involved with a sea line, the Albyn Line. His early life included crew experience on steamships which were at one stage gun-running to America during the American Civil War, and he wrote of a number of dangerous escapades during this time.

He was knighted in the 1902 Coronation Honours, receiving the accolade from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October that year.

Allan had five sons and four daughters. His son, Walter Beattie Allan, published a book which was an illustrated account of his life, for his grandchildren. William Allan published a number of books of traditional Scottish poetry

At Bowman Gray School of Medicine, the first department of medical genetics in the United States was established, and William Allan was appointed as the department’s first chairman. Prior to this appointment, Allan had been in private practice in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was nationally recognized for his early work in human and medical genetics. As chairman of this new department, William Allan also directed the nation’s first research program in medical genetics, funded by the Carnegie Foundation.

The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) named its highest honor for Allan in 1961. The William Allan Award is presented annually by ASHG to recognize substantial and far-reaching scientific contributions to human genetics carried out over a sustained period of scientific inquiry and productivity. An award of $25,000 and an engraved medal are presented at the ASH annual meeting.

Born in Ulster, Allan grew up in Glasgow, working in a cotton mill from the age of twelve, then later serving an engineering apprenticeship. However, before completing the apprenticeship, he married and moved to Liverpool, soon finding work with the Grand Junction Railway Company. He later moved to Crewe to further his career, and while there joined the Manchester Society of Mechanics and also the Journeymen Steam Engine and Machine Makers' Friendly Society ("Old Mechanics"), two early trade unions.

In 1847, Henry Selsby, the secretary of the Old Mechanics, was arrested for supporting engineers who were on strike, and the following year he resigned, with Allan elected to take his place. Allan was in favour of union amalgamations, and he worked with William Newton to bring together several branches of other unions to form the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, the first example of what became known as a "New Model Union". Some branches of the Old Mechanics did not join, but Allan persevered and by the end of 1851 had brought membership up to over 10,000.

Allan was also prominent in the national trade union movement. He instigated the formation of the London Trades Council, and was close to the members of the "Junta". He joined the Reform League, attended the first Conference of Amalgamated Trades and first Co-operative Congress, was the treasurer of the Labour Representation League, and although he was initially suspicious of the Trades Union Congress, he soon came to support it, becoming treasurer in 1871. He also became chair of the Bee-Hive newspaper for the labour movement in 1870.

During the 1870s, Allan gradually became less active due to suffering from Bright's disease, but he remained in his posts until his death in 1874.