Charley / Charlie (Charley Allen)

Charles Alfred Allen (1874–1967) was Robertson's first cousin: the son of Walter Alfred Allen, the older brother of Robertson's mother, Alice Mary Allen, and his wife Jane. Born on the Isle of Wight, Charley came out to Winnipeg with the family as a boy, returned to England in 1910, and settled in Streatham, London, close to his parents. He had married Alice Maud Mary Ford, also of the Isle of Wight, in 1910. In London he worked for the Canadian government's emigration office at 11 & 12 Charing Cross: the "Can. Gov't Offices" of the forwarding address Robertson gave his correspondents throughout the war.

He was Robertson's fixed point in England from the day he landed. A friend of Charley's came aboard to meet the ship at Liverpool in March 1915; within the week Charley was down at the Shorncliffe camps himself, bringing mail and magazines and standing Robertson a lunch of "beef & Yorkshire pudding" at Folkestone. On leave Robertson moved between Charley's house and his uncle's nearby: over to "Charlie's" for tea, out in the garden photographing the family's small daughter. In June 1915 Charley interviewed "the Adj. + C.O + Gen." on Robertson's behalf, pressing his case for a commission.

He also acted as Robertson's agent and banker in London. Mail from Canada was routed "via Charley"; Robertson shipped souvenirs home through him ("Sent shell noses to Charley"). A March 1916 tailor's account has Robertson's khaki cloth "passed along to Mr. Allen for shipment to Montreal," and that August a Military Forwarding Establishment slip records a sack of three officers' surplus kit (Robertson's, Major Coplan's and Lieut. Gilbert's) sent from the 1st Canadian Division railhead to "C. A. Allen Esq, 11 & 12 Charing Cross." An account Charley drew up in February 1917 lists the small sums he had laid out over the previous year (razor blades, watch and boot repairs, laundry, Cox's Bank charges, Christmas crackers, a shilling "Baseball Guide," a cable to Toronto) totalling £5 4s. 11d. His unit still knew where to reach him a year and a half on: a telegram confirming Robertson's captaincy was wired to "Lieut A M Robertson chez C A Allen" at the Charing Cross office in August 1918 and delivered there while he was on leave.

Charley was secretary of the Streatham Hill Lodge (No. 3784), and the February 1917 summons to Freemasons' Hall is in his hand. He seconded Robertson for initiation there, his father, W. A. Allen (the "Uncle" of the diary) proposing; Robertson was initiated that June, on the leave when he collected his Military Cross. When word reached London that Robertson had been "wounded for the third time" (a sniper's bullet through the neck on February 26, 1917) Charley wrote to the family on March 7, quoting the cable already sent to Robertson's mother, reporting that his own letter had been read out "from the Chair" at the Lodge, and passing on a senior officer's verdict: "every inch a soldier ... a brave boy."

Late in the war Charley took an honorary commission of his own. His Canadian service record has him gazetted temporary honorary lieutenant on the General List, without pay or allowances, from December 22, 1917 (London Gazette 30461), and honorary captain from January 16, 1919, on Red Cross duty. He was posted from the depot at Buxton to the 2nd Canadian Discharge Depot in London for emigration-department work in December 1919, and retired in the British Isles on February 11, 1920. By then the record gives his address as "Homegarth," Horley, Surrey, the family having moved out of Streatham.