Annie Emma Allen (1853-1942) travelled to Mengo, Uganda in 1900 where she began her career as an honorary missionary with the Church Missionary Society. She formed part of a party including six other missionaries: Albert B. Lloyd and his wife Mary (née Masters), Hugh Savile, Annie Glass (later married Alexander Fraser), Annie Robinson and Ruth Hurditch (later married A.B. Fisher). Allen recorded her journey in a series of annotated watercolours, which provide a vivid impression of the people and places she encountered. RCMS 158/1-8 portray the outward journey to Port Said; RCMS 158/9-19 show Sinai, the Red Sea and Aden; RCMS 158/20-25 were painted in Mombasa and Freretown; and RCMS 158/26-66 illustrate the trek from the coast to Lake Victoria.

From Mombasa, the party travelled upon the East African railway to the end of its line at Kilindini, and Allen painted several very interesting watercolours illustrating work to push it further into the hinterland, at times over extremely rugged, hilly terrain. The missionaries then mounted bicycles, usually completing about 15 miles a day and sleeping under canvas. The final stage to Lake Victoria was completed on foot because of fallen trees and deep ox waggon ruts, which made cycling on the rough roads impossible. The steamboat ‘Ruwenzori’ which had been sent to meet the party was wrecked on the way, so it had to sail across the lake into Uganda in an Arab dhow.

Allen would serve as a CMS missionary in Uganda for the next 25 years, teaching and working in hospitals and dispensaries. She retired in 1926, at the age of 73, and returned to Britain.