A tribute to Dr. Ian Allen
On 18 June 2007, Dr Ian Allen, Executive Treasurer of BSPOGA, and also of the International Society of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISPOG), died suddenly at 62. He was one of the most respected and committed members of BSPOGA and ISPOG.
Ian joined ISPOG as an individual member in the 1970s. In the 1990s, he was involved in the revival of the British Society for Psychosomatic and Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BSPOGA) and was its Executive Treasurer from 1994 until his death. Ian held the British Society together and kept it on a sound footing.
He was Chair of BSPOGA from 2003 to 2005 and demonstrated his management skills so that BSPOGA was able to support the holding of the ISPOG XVI congress in 2004. He was Chair of the Congress Local Organising committee and we held many meetings with the Conference organisers and Ian’s ability to keep an eye on all the arrangements was crucial to its success. He will be remembered for his pride in holding the congress in his native Scotland and for confidently wearing the kilt.
Ian Allen studied medicine at Glasgow University and graduated in1968. He became a Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1980. He established the first psychosexual clinic in Lanarkshire, Scotland and was a founder member of the Nixon Club. He brought to BSPOGA rigour in organisation, expertise in IT, and most of all a dedication to the improvement of women’s health through application of psychosomatic principles. He carried a heavy clinical load exclusively in the National Health Service but this enabled him to keep in touch with the needs of local people, many from areas of deprivation.
He represented ISPOG XVI on the ISPOG Executive Council and made an invaluable contribution. His meticulous attention to detail, his commitment and his unshakeable integrity made him a skilled and invaluable member of any organisation. These qualities were recognised internationally when he was unanimously elected treasurer of ISPOG.
Ian was a spiritual person, a man of faith and dedication. This was reflected in his membership of the Quaker movement, which he joined in 1980 under the influence of his wife, Elizabeth. He was also a lifelong member of the peace movement, in which he was very active intellectually and was a clerk and witness within that group. When he and Elizabeth attended the Kyoto congress they welcomed the opportunity to visit Hiroshima.
His beliefs meant that he was both teetotal and vegetarian. His denial of alcohol was never a problem for his friends. His vegetarianism could lead to difficulties in choosing a restaurant, particularly at the ISPOG congress in Argentina where beef is such an important part of the culture. Asking for something vegetarian was greeted with disbelief and astonishment, but this reaction was always accepted by Ian with his customary, gentle good humour. His modest, quiet unassuming way and sense of humour won him friends and respect in any group.
Ian’s meticulous attention to detail was manifested in the last lecture he was to give, that in Kyoto on post-graduate education in the UK. Researched with typical thoroughness he made the issues and problems crystal clear.
It is said that life is like a sentence, it does not make complete sense until it comes to a full stop. With his appointment as ISPOG treasurer, Ian’s qualities were getting more widely recognised and his full stop came much too prematurely. He had a lot more to contribute, but I suspect he would be accepting and philosophical about that. He was a spiritual person who believed that medicine and healing were more important than science.
His work was governed by love, by charity in the biblical sense. He agreed with John Donne that none of us is an individual isolated island, we are all part of a greater continent, that of mankind. Mankind mattered to Ian very much. It is not only his family, BSPOGA and ISPOG who are the poorer for his death, but in Donne’s sense, we all are.