Head-and-shoulders classical-style plaster bust of Joseph Allen on a round socle, signed 'T. Milnes Sc 1848' and showing much of the sitter's right chest under the toga draped loosely round his shoulders and under the left arm. It has an associated dark marble pedestal.

Allen was 'Military Superintendent of Dining Halls and Kitchens' at Greenwich Hospital from 1 September 1833 to his death on 21 October 1864, and also the librarian of the officers' Library by 1842. He was also a fairly prolific writer and journalist on naval subjects, as editor of 'Allen's New Navy List' and in a number of books, including a 'Life of Nelson' (1853) and a 'Memoir of Admiral Sir William Hargood' (1861). These are now mainly of interest for the snippets of information they contain (on incidents, attitudes or personalities) that derive from naval veterans of the French Wars whom he knew, from officers to Greenwich Pensioners.

The bust was presented in May 1955 by Mrs F. H. Collier, a descendant of Allen. Milnes (1813-88) also executed a memorial bust of Lieutenant Rivers of Greenwich Hospital (SCU0046) and the monument to Captain John Simpson of Greenwich Hospital (d. 1849) which still stands just west of the NMM in the former Hospital burial ground (now Devonport House grounds), bearing a profile of Simpson and three plaques of Faith, Hope and Charity. Simpson's claim to modern remembrance is that at the end of the War of American Independence in 1782, when midshipman in a storeship at New York (and presumably the most insignificant officer available) he was sent to surrender the keys of the city to General George Washington.