This lithographic artist was born in Irvine's Halfway (now called Montgomery Street) in 1863, famously also the thoroughfare on which another famous son, poet, journalist and social reformer, James Montgomery, also saw the first light of day. Allan trained at The Glasgow School of Art from 1882 until 1896. He worked mainly in the postcard trade, for whom he developed an innovative printing technique. This process imitated the appearance of wax crayons. The illustration to the left of this text depicts one of the many examples of this technique in action.. Allan used this technique many times in the work which he produced for Millar & Lang, Art Publishers, Glasgow. The painting , shown below, called 'Thistledown' and is part of the Glasgow Museums Collection.