Horace Newton Allen

Horace Newton Allen (1858–1932) was a Protestant medical missionary and a diplomat from the United States to Korea at the end of the Joseon Dynasty.

He was born in Delaware, Ohio on April 23, 1858. He received his B.S. at Ohio Wesleyan University, in 1881 and subsequently graduated from Miami Medical School in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1883.

At his own request, he was appointed on a mission to China by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Northern Presbyterian Church and a year later he was sent to work at the United States Legation to Korea as physician. Soon after his arrival with his family on September 20, 1884, he was involved in the aftermath of Gapsinjeongbyeon, during which a royal relative Min Young Ik was stabbed and injured. The German diplomat Paul Georg von Möllendorff was present at the massacre and quickly requested Allen's medical care. Under his modern medical treatment unknown to Korea at the time, Min Young Ik recovered in three months. Consequently, this initiated for Allen a close connection with Gojong, and demonstrated the benefit of western medicine to the Korean public. With this auspicious turn of events Allen was able to establish Gwanghyewon (廣惠院, House of Extended Grace) under royal finance and support in Seoul. Gwanghyewon was the first modern medical facility in Korea. The Gwanghyewon was soon renamed by Gojong to Che Chung Won (the House of Civilized Virtue) and evolved to become the current Severance Hospital and Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea. He was instrumental in lifting the nation's anti-Christianity policy to allow the influx of missionaries to evangelize, build schools and other western hospitals in the Hermit Kingdom.

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