Worship at the Abbey

A Service of Thanksgiving to celebrate the life and work of Lord Croham GCB was held in St Margaret’s Church on Tuesday 20th November 2012 at Noon

Douglas Albert Vivian Allen, later Lord Croham, was born on 15th December 1917, the son of Albert Allen, who was killed in action when Douglas was three months old. He was educated at Wallington county grammar school and the London School of Economics, where he received a first in economics and statistics in 1938.

He served in the Second World War in the Royal Artillery. In 1947, Lord Croham, joined the Cabinet Office as an economic advisor. A year later, he moved to the Treasury, and in 1958 was promoted to under-secretary at the Ministry of Health.

Lord Croham was at the centre of Britain's postwar economic crises, working with 15 chancellors of the exchequer over nearly 30 years before being appointed permanent secretary at the Treasury in 1968 and then, in 1974, head of the civil service.

He was knighted in 1967 and made a life peer in 1978.

Lord Croham was chairman of the British National Oil Corporation (1982 86), Guinness Peat Group (1982-87) and Trinity Insurance (1987-92). He was president of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1978 to 1992.

Lord Croham’s wife, Sybil, died in 1994, and the youngest of their three children, Richard, also predeceased him. He is survived by his daughter, Rosamund, and elder son, John.