Albert Allan was the son of station master, John Joseph, and Katherine Allan.

Born in Wingate, Co Durham, he initially attended the Henry Smith Grammar School, in Hartlepool, but the family moved to Jarrow, and Albert joined the High School at the age of 13 under a scholarship from Sherburn Hospital Trustees.

On leaving school he became a Clerk with North East Railways, and in 1912 started an apprenticeship in the Traffic division.

When war broke out he joined the Railway Transport Division of the Royal Engineers as a Sergeant, serving with the British Expeditionary Force in France from 1914 to 1920.

He married Margherita Miles in South Shields in early 1920, and then left Britain to be a Traffic Inspector with the Federated Malay States railway. He was quickly promoted to Assistant Secretary to its General Manager, where he remained from 1921 until his promotion to Divisional Superintendent in 1932.

In April 1938, he left Malaya to take up the post of General Manager of the Sierra Leone railway, and on leaving the post in 1944 was awarded the CBE.

He returned to Britian and lived in Buckinghamshire until his death in January, 1948.