State honour for RUC Reserve Constable Wallace Allen, killed by the IRA in August 1980, in Elizabeth Emblem awards

Wallace, targeted by the IRA because of his role as a police reservist, is one of 32 Troubles victims to receive an Elizabeth Emblem, which is awarded to public servants who died in the line of duty.

Announced on Friday (4th), 30 Troubles victims receiving the awards are from Northern Ireland, most of them full time or reserve RUC officers. Two English people killed by the IRA are also to get emblems, while four members of the emergency services in Ulster who died in circumstances unrelated to terror are also being recognised.

For his son Kenny, Wallace Allen’s death meant he lost the chance to have an “adult to adult relationship” with his father, seeking his advice and reassurance as he matured out of his teen years.

“I was 20 years old when he died, I hadn’t grown up properly myself,” Kenny told the News Letter. “But I could feel a new type of relationship growing; the kind as you get older, where your dad’s there to guide you, give you the wisdom of his experience, or let the air of your balloon when you get big-headed. That was taken away with him.”

A married 49-year-old with two children, Wallace was an inspector for the Milk Marketing Board in south Armagh. While making his rounds collecting milk early on August 31, 1980, his lorry was waylaid by the IRA.

Later that day the lorry was discovered five miles from the border, bloodstains next to it and a bomb concealed on board. There was no sign of Wallace.

Then-SDLP leader Seamus Mallon, a neighbour, volunteered to act as a mediator in negotiations – but after a few days, the IRA issued a statement claiming he’d died of injuries he received “while resisting arrest”. His body was found two weeks later.

Kenny says he still feels his father’s loss every day, and as life goes on regularly finds unexpected reminders of him.

“Turning 50 was an odd experience,” he said. “I realised I was older than my father ever was. You always think of your father as old man, but really he wasn’t old at all when he died; it’s a peculiar kind of thing they don’t tell you about.”

With their father an RUC man in south Armagh at the height of the Troubles, the family knew danger was around – indeed, Kenny had served in the UDR, which had its own lessons.

“It was always said you were in more danger off duty than on,” he said. “When you had a weapon and people with you on the street, it was safer than in your personal life – that’s why the family had an emergency escape plan for the home.”

But Wallace’s shocking murder let what Kenny says is an “indescribable gap, immense loss”, especially felt around the anniversary of his death. “I think about him, what might have been and the grandchildren he never met.”

Receiving the Elizabeth Emblem is a welcome recognition of his father’s ultimate sacrifice but, Kenny feels, an overdue one.

“Until now, it’s been up to community organisations and police organisations to have some form of memorial; there hasn’t been anything for people like my father from the state before. I’m glad to see this happen, that his service is recognised.”