A Sussex stalwart who was one of the original voices of cricket in the county has died at the age of 95.

Stanley Allen, who helped launch the fledgling Radio Brighton in 1968, passed away in Worthing Hospital on December 23.

His involvement in the county ranged from campaigning for nature and conservation to his work as secretary of Sussex County Cricket Club (SCCC).

Mr Allen was chief executive of SCCC at the height of the controversial Kerry Packer era.


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His son, Nic, spoke glowingly of his father when he talked to The Argus.

Nic Allen, 64, said: “We have accumulated lots of good memories – he was nearly 96 and had lived quite an interesting life.

“I suppose my earliest memories of him were when he was a councillor in Hove.

“I remember spending a lot of time with him down at The County Ground as a child trying to get autographs and that sort of thing.

“We’re all members of the MCC and we follow Sussex from afar and that’s something that he had got us all into.

“In fact, we were joking the other day that as a cricket man he would’ve been frustrated about not making his ton – but he’s had a good innings.”

Mr Allen was an active campaigner right up until the day he died and one of his earliest quests was to improve the TV and radio signal in Brighton and Hove. Through that battle he got involved with the BBC, becoming chairman of the South Advisory Council.

Mr Allen was also well-known for his efforts to preserve Widewater lagoon and limit development along the Adur riverbank.

Having lived in Shoreham for 30 years he was involved in nature groups, including Shoreham District Ornithological Society, Sussex Downsmen and the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

With wife Peggy, who died three years ago at the age of 93, he had three sons – Nic, Martin, 65, and Anthony, 70, ten grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

The couple’s families were neighbours in Hove when they were young, where Mr Allen grew up in the vicarage at the Good Shepherd Church in Dyke Road as his father was the first vicar there.

Both Martin and Anthony – who turned 70 on the day his father passed away – have gone on to work at their father’s law firm, from which he had retired as a solicitor.

Mr Allen added: “The next step for me is to find out about his history in the Second World War – that’s where he got his MBE for his part in the Battle of the Ardennes. I know he went over on D-Day and was there until late in 1945, but it’s not something you ask somebody when they’re still alive, so I’m trying to research his life in the war and piece it all together.”

Mr Allen’s funeral will be held at St Mary’s Church, Shoreham, at 9.45am on Monday, January 6 – which would have been Mr and Mrs Allen’s 72nd wedding anniversary. The family has requested no flowers and no black.