William Henry Allen

William Henry Allen (1844 to 3 September 1926) was the founder of the company W. H. Allen, Sons & Company Ltd. He was educated at Weston-Super-Mare and at Christ College, Brecon. He served an apprenticeship with Richard Neville and Company at their Wern Foundry in Carmarthenshire, who specialized in large colliery machinery and winding gear at its Llanelli works. During his years in Llanelli he became a proficient organist, playing regularly in the little local church. It was there that he fell in love and eventually married a local girl, Ann Pemberton Howell (1847–86) from the nearby village of Felinfoel. The marriage took place in June 1865 and their first born son, Richard William, later Sir Richard Allen, was born in Cardiff in 1867.