Richard Allman

Background

Allman was the son of James C. Allman and his wife Sarah née Lane.

Career

He was also an Irish Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1885. The family were entrepreneurs in Bandon in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Initially they ran a cotton mill at Overton, near Bandon, but when this declined they established a distillery in 1826.

Allman"s distillery produced up to 600,000 gallons of whiskey per year, which was mostly exported.

However, trade was badly hit by prohibition in the United States and by the great depression. Production stopped in 1925, and the business closed in 1929.

At the general election in April 1885, Allman unsuccessfully contested the borough of Bandon. He lost by 15 votes (175:200) to the Conservative Percy Broderick Bernard, a nephew of the 3rd Earl of Bandon whose family had held the seat for most of the 19th century.

The borough was disenfranchised at the 1885 general election.

Achievements

• He had won 217 votes, against the 172 for the Conservative J. W. Payne.

Membership

22nd United Kingdom

However, Bernard resigned from the House of Commons in June 1880, and at the resulting by-election on 25 June 1880, Allman was elected as the Member of (Member of Parliament) for Bandon.