Allen, Fred

Fred Allen married Joyce Bennett, a Registered Nurse, working in Princeton on August 4, 1949. 

Fred Allen attended school in Princeton, he was in Grade 1 in 1932 and on the 1943-1944 Student Council at Princeton High School (June 1943).

He was an avid skier: competing in ski jumping (1936) to (1944), ski racing (1937),  downhill and slalom (1942). He also participated in the Princeton High School Annual Ski Tournament (1944) and placed in the top three in cross country, jumping, slalom.

He was also a gymnast  and participated in a tumbling demonstration at the Pro-Rec Dance in 1939.

Fred Allen was also a boy scout and on a First Aid Team to compete in the St. John Ambulance junior competitions (1940). He attended father-son banquet (1940) and attended the “International Boy Scout Camp and Cyclorama” in Otter Bay and Vernon in August 1940. 

Perhaps preparatory to enlisting, he achieved his First Aid Certificate in 1942. He then joined the Princeton Air Cadets and was appointed N.C.O. for Princeton Squadron No. 217 (March 1943). At the Princeton High School Airforce Cadets banquet in May 1944, Fred had already enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). The Similkameen Star on July 6 reported that he had passed his “re-check” and was on his way to east (1944). In December 1944, the Similkameen Star noted that he had been discharged from the RCAF due to a change in the number of men being trained and that he intended to enlist in the infantry. 

In July 1945, Private Fred Allen was home in Princeton on two weeks leave from Camp Shilo, Manitoba (1945) and on January 1946, he was home on leave before going to England. At that time, he was serving with No. 35 Guarding Co., Neys, Ontario.

Fred Allen was on the Honor Roll of Amber Ski Club – Senior Members Serving King and Country  (1945).