In 1819 George Allen’s life took an auspicious turn.
Family friend Sir Robert Wigram showed his support for George's family by sending a letter to Governor Lachlan Macquarie requesting that George and his brother Richard each receive £100 and a grant of land in New South Wales. It was a time of progress and opportunity and Governor Macquarie approved the request.
Land ownership in the young colony created status and security. George never lived on the land he was granted, but that 121 hectares north-west of Parramatta gave him the means to establish himself in the community.
George invested the entire £100 from Governor Macquarie's grant in a single share in the newly-founded Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac).
Establishing the bank was part of Governor Macquarie’s plan to create a dynamic economy and bring much-needed financial order to the colony.
Establishing the bank was part of Governor Macquarie’s plan to create a dynamic economy and bring much-needed financial order to the colony. The bank provided everyone in the colony, from traders to farmers, with a stable monetary system, a local source of credit and a safe place for deposits. It was not in George's nature to take a gamble. He clearly believed in this fledgling venture.
Frederick Garling, George's supervising solicitor, managed the bank’s early legal work and helped write the rules under which it operated. Garling, and subsequently George, represented the bank in a diverse range of matters over the years, many critically important to the bank's reputation and growth. These included an action by the bank in 1821 against its first cashier, Francis Williams, who was found to have embezzled £6,000 by setting up fictitious bank accounts. This was an alarming development for George, whose only money was invested in the bank.
The bank was George's main client in his early years of legal practice, providing a steady stream of work on shareholder and customer-related matters. George prepared documents for the bank's board for many years. The relationship was cemented in October 1843 when George was appointed official solicitor to the bank. George went on to become a director of the bank and then its president from 1863 to 1866. He was the first of several Allens partners to serve on the bank’s board of directors.
The association between Westpac and Allens continues today and is one of the most enduring, if not the most enduring, commercial relationship in Australia.
Mary Reibey’s house, which the Bank of New South Wales occupied as its first office from 1817 to 1822. Westpac Historical Collection.
In 1972, on the occasion of the firm's 150th anniversary, the Bank of New South Wales presented Allen Allen & Hemsley with a silver pitcher as a token of esteem.