Harold Barclay Allen – Alumn from the 1900s
Posted on July 25, 2024
When Nicola “Punch” Maughan, an English entrepreneur and board member, visited Sydney’s Waverley Cemetery from Wales this year, the manager at the ocean-side graveyard was delighted to assist. Punch’s great great grandmother Ruth Allen lay in Plot 1 at the oceanside site – its very first burial, in 1877. Ruth’s and four of her family members’ resting places have no headstones, the Quakers then eschewing adornment.
Punch’s family has a long history with The Friends’ School; she visited from Wales to tour the school in February. Her paternal grandfather, Harold Barclay Allen, was sent from Melbourne with his brother Douglas to attend in 1905. Later their brothers Fergus and Colin also attended. Punch, who’s on the board of governors at a private school in Wales, says her family traces its Quaker history to 1700 in Ireland and that some of her relatives are researching further still.
