Patrick John Allen qualified at Belfast in 1957 and became a house surgeon at Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. Later he was a research assistant at St Bartholomew's Hospital London, and a senior registrar at St Mark's Hospital. Returning to Northern Ireland he was a consultant surgeon at the Lurgan and Portadown Hospital, and to the Banbridge Hospital. He moved to Canada in the mid 1970's, obtained his FRCS Canada in general surgery and spent the rest of his life in surgical work at Chatham, Ontario, where he was on the staff of St Joseph's Hospital and Chief of Surgery at the Public General Hospital. He died in Chatham on 9 May 1993.