An Elizabeth II Black Leather covered Governmental Despatch Box C 1975 with rear leather carrying handle and Chubb lock, the top stamped with the Royal Insignia 'EIIR' and the title 'HEAD OF THE HOME CIVIL SERVICE', the lock stamped 'By Appointment', the keyhole with the Chubb escutcheon, the black leather cloth lined interior with raised sides and stabilising studs.
Accompanying the box is a label printed with the Royal Insignia E.R., with a crown above, and handwritten 'Sir Douglas Allen* Souvenir Box' - non security lock'. On the verso, also handwritten 'Head of HCS'.
Weight 4 kg
Size 46 x 30.5 x 10 cm
*Sir Douglas Allen (15 December 1917 – 11 September 2011) became a Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Health, a post he held until 1960, when he changed to Her Majesty's Treasury again. Made a Third Secretary in 1962 and a Permanent Secretary in 1966, he worked for the Department of Economic Affairs (1964–68). Allen was Permanent Secretary of Her Majesty's Treasury from 1968 to 1974, and Permanent Secretary of the Civil Service Department and Head of the Home Civil Service (1974–77).
Allen was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was made an Honorary Doctor of Social Science (DSocSc) by the University of Southampton. In 1963, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Bath (CB), in 1967 a Knight Commander of the same Order (KCB), and in 1973, a Knight Grand Cross of the same Order (GCB). On 8 February 1978, he was created a life peer as Baron Croham, of the London Borough of Croydon.
