Guide to the Papers of Scotty Allan

Biographical Note

George Urquhart Allan was born on 2 February 1900 in Bellshill, Scotland. In 1917 he joined the Royal Flying Corps and served on the Western Front. Allan continued his service with the RAF after the war and served in the Middle East. In 1929 he was recruited by Charles Ulm as a pilot with Australian National Airways where he flew on the first airmail flights from Sydney to Brisbane with Charles Kingsford-Smith and from Sydney to Melbourne with Pat Hall. After ANA was disbanded in 1931, Allan continued to fly, and in 1933 flew with Ulm and P.G. Taylor on the record-breaking flight from England to Australia in Faith in Australia.

In 1934 Allan joined Qantas to fly DH86 aircraft on the Brisbane to Singapore route. In 1938 he went to England to study flying-boat techniques and returned to Sydney in the flying boat Coolangatta. In 1941 Allan was a member of the Qantas crew which brought flying boats from San Diego to Sydney for the RAAF. During 1941 Allan was seconded to the RAAF as Wing-Commander and was C.O. of various stations including Rathmines on Lake Macquarie, where he trained Catalina crews, and No. 1 Flying Boat Repair Depot at Lake Boga.

After the war, Allan rejoined Qantas as London Manager, then as Controller of Technical Developments, where he was chief adviser on aircraft types. Allan retired from Qantas in 1961 as Deputy Chief Executive and Deputy General Manager. After his retirement he held positions on many boards including Fiji Airways, Air Pacific, Polynesian Airlines and Malayan Airways.

Allan married Ailsa Lee Brown in 1935 and Barbara Millbourne in 1944. He was made a Commander of the British Empire for his services to aviation in 1957.