BING ALLAN (BINGO)

Adjust Text Size: A+ A-

BING ALLAN
1940 - 2019

George Bingham (Bingo) Allan died, after a short illness, in his sleep at 10:15 p.m., Christmas Eve, peacefully at St. Boniface General Hospital, surrounded by the people who loved him.
Bingo was born in Winnipeg, at the then Women's Hospital on April 11, 1940. He was the youngest son of the late Tony and Dorothy (Dot, Dollie, Dodo) Allan. He grew up in North Fort Garry, attending St. John's Ravenscourt School, Vincent Massey Collegiate and the University of Manitoba, where he fulfilled his love of rocks by majoring in geology. Bing spent his career with the provincial government, somewhat unfulfilled, as a financial analyst. His actual life's work was elsewhere, being the graceful, quiet man who profoundly affected, aided and enriched the lives of his family and all the people and dogs who knew and loved him.
His passing leaves a vacuum among us all. He is survived by his brother Ted Allan; sister-in-law Dawn Allan; nephew Mac Allan; nieces, KC Allan and Joc Allan, and their children, Haley and Shea Allan and Jocelyn Bransford. His beloved, extended family includes, Liz and Al Bergman and their children, Ian, twins Sarah and Martha, and Liz and her husband Bill Bilton, their spouses and children, including Liam and Claire Bilton, were remembered kindly by Bingo for their love of family and the island.
He was a devout 'Pegger, although not preachy about it, having turned down career opportunities on the Left Coast, Ottawa and TO. Similar to his paternal grandfather, G.W. Allan, who left his Toronto origins to establish his home-base in Winnipeg and the Lake of the Woods. Bingo's single foray, after university, into the rest of civilized world, took him physically around it. Backpacking from Vancouver to Auckland, all over New Zealand, onto Sydney, and all over Australia, to Thailand, India, Afghanistan, various Trashkanistans, through western Europe, up to the Arctic Circle to Hammerfest, Norway, where he was nailed by a parasite picked up en route from, he suspected, street-food he ate in, probably, Slovenia. His nurse, Ingeborg, talking in sign-language, warned him against eating out again in the feral Caucuses. He returned to the 'Peg, chastened, 30 pounds underweight, wary of the Caucuses.
His heart's repose was the 50-acre Nanton Island on the Lake of the Woods his grandfather G.W. left to the Allans, originally purchased in 1896. There he summered from 1947, in a tent camping-out with his parents, brother Ted and cousin Liz, through to the comfortable decades in cottages. He fed-out island deer, replanted hundreds of pines on a granite outcrop - an area devastated by a fungus-blight; fished for the wily pickerel with his brother Ted and other amateur anglers, tamed a wild partridge he named Bobbie, took his dogs, Julie and Dexter fishing and partridge hunting. And, on one occasion, fired his .410 at a partridge in a jack-pine tree, missed the partridge, but knocked-down, unharmed, his brother Ted's English Cocker Spaniel CoCo, a game bird dog who routinely climbed leaning trees harbouring partridge.
He lived a full and aware life, somewhat on the sly, on his own never articulated terms. A gifted wildlife photographer, a re-generator of boreal forest, a generous contributor to charities representing those incapable of speaking for themselves, including the Winnipeg Humane Society, World Wildlife Fund Canada, Greenpeace Canada and Save the Children Canada.
Bingo had an enduring love and encyclopaedic knowledge and collection of jazz and soul music, passed on to him by his father Tony. He was a sharp observer and photographic chronicler of the natural world, leaving behind him a bounty of starkly realized photographs. But, he was also a natural criminal mastermind at pirating e-books, passing them along to the rest of us, denying the rightful authors their copyright dues, presuming that William Boyd, T.C. Boyle, Richard Dawkins et al wouldn't notice his indiscretions.
A lovely, distinctive man that deer, dogs, birds and children knew better than we, his adult family, friends and many others, ever did. He is survived by all of us related to him and knew and loved him. Bing will live on in our memories forever.
Our thanks to his niece Jocelyn Allan, who comforted and cosseted him during his decline, and nurse Maggie at St. Boniface General Hospital, who eased him along his journey.
In keeping with Bingo's modesty, there will be no public ceremony. His ashes are to be spread on Nanton Island next summer by his people.
To signify your care in his memory, please consider contributing to the charities listed above.

www.voyagefuneralhomes.com

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Dec 28, 2019