Allen Townsend was born in Bosbury, Herefordshire and by 1911 was living with his family in Badsey and employed as a market gardener. He joined the Worcestershire Regt (No. 1525) and went to the Western Front on 1st April 1915. No details of his service have been found, but he later joined the Somerset Light Infantry (No 266397) and was discharged from the Army, still with the rank of Private, on 17th March 1919. He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals and the 1915 Star.
Allen Townsend had married Evelyn Emily Earnshaw in the Solihull area in 1917 and they had two children baptised in Wickhamford in 1923 and 1924, when he was working as a market gardener. In the 1924 Electoral Roll he was living at 1 Longdon Hill. Another son was born Solihull in 1930, so the family had left the area by then. He died in Birmingham in 1943, aged only 47 years.