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Allen Farrell was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada on May 12, 1912. Allen was named after his father 'Jasper Mallory Daniels'.
His father Jasper along with his brother Henry had left the United States after deserting the American Military, showing a definite unwillingness to participate in organized violence.
Allen was called Mallory or Mal in his early life. The family lived in Siwash Creek at the head of Powell Lake. They built a log home here where mother Stella, father Jasper along with three daughters: Lois, Kay and Billlie,and one son Mallory, lived. Father Jasper worked at various jobs on the lake. When Mallory was six W.W.I ended, and the Powell River Company raised the lake and flooded them out. Jasper later sued the company for damages, preparing his own case, and was successful.
The family moved up the coast where father Jasper worked on a forestry boat. In 1920 they moved to Dunbar Heights in Vancouver, where father became a map maker for the Vancouver courthouse. Mal went to school where gymnastics and swimming were his favourite activities.
At 17 he signed on as cabin boy on board the Golden Sea bound for the Orient. He shovelled ten tons of coal every day down in the boiler room. When back in Vancouver, he worked for Cameron and Scott Boatbuilders. Next, he worked on Prevost Island with a logging company until 1930 when the company went broke. Returning to Vancouver, Mallory then got on with the Vancouver City survey crew, working in earnest until depression struck and he was laid off.
Mallory was married to Betty Crawford in 1933. In 1934 he built his first boat, a Norweigan-style 14 foot rowboat. They rowed up the coast to Sechelt where they fished. After fishing for a month, they returned to Vancouver where soon after their first son was born, Darryl in 1934. A year later, a second son, Jerome was born.
In 1935 after training in the Lynmour Gym, Mallory entered the Annual Provincial Gymnastics Competition in Victoria, and won first prize as the best all-around gymnast in B.C. He was immediately offered work teaching physical education at a public high school in Chilliwack. Working after school and on weekends, Mal built a pair of 12 foot V-bottom skiffs, which could be rowed or sailed.
In the spring of 1937, with their two sons, they set sail down the Fraser River and then up to Lasqueti Island. Here they fished for salmon. They continued fishing on the B.C. Coast for a few years until in 1938, they moved to North Vancouver and built a float house. After working at the sawmill there for a while, he decided to build his first commercial fish boat, a 35-foot troller, called Southwind. They fished for a while then ended up in Pender Harbour where a few months later Southwind was sold and they bought property in Bargain Harbour. There they built a home which is still standing today.In 1942 He built the fish boat Kivi a 24-foot cod-fishing boat. By November of that year, their third son Patrick was born in the Hospital Bay hospital, Pender Harbour. Betty left Mallory in 1946, taking the two older sons with her to Vancouver. Soon after Mallory met Gladys Nightengale. In 1945 the couple changed their names through numerology to become Allen and Sharie Farrell with sons Barrie, Jerry, and Keray Farrell.