History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Biographies/Robert Kelvin Allen

Robert Kelvin Allen was a prominent amateur operator and amateur broadcaster in the late 1930s. He was educated at Scots College at Warwick and was appointed to the Queensland state public service with the Treasury Department. His station callsign was 4PR (4=Queensland, P=?, R=?) and he operated from Brisbane and Toowoomba, Queensland. He joined the RAAF in 1940, shortly after the commencement of the Second World War, excelled in the examinations and qualified as a pilot. In January 1942, he sadly passed in an aircraft accident in the the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia). "Greater love hath no man than this"

A summary biography has not yet been prepared however the following resources have been assembled in preparation:

A brief biography of former students of Scots College, Warwick, who made the supreme sacrifice (including 4PR) was published in 2007.[1]

Each year, the Wireless Institute of Australia conducts a Remembrance Day contest to celebrate the lives of Australian amateur operators killed in action in the Second World War. As at 2020, Michael Charteris (VK4QS) is working on a book of biographies to record those who made the ultimate sacrifice and it is expected to be published by the Wireless Institute of Australia in 2021.

References edit

  1. Telfer, John Robert; Scots College (Warwick, Qld.) (2007), Profiles of courage : a collection of short stories of the young men of The Scots College Warwick, Queensland who made the supreme sacrifice in World War II 1939-1945, The SCOTS PGC College, ISBN 978-0-646-49019-9