It's often glibly said that all knowledge is one computer click away but, until this week, recognition of the achievements of one of Glasgow's most famous ministers could not be found on the web.
Now a thorough and verifiable new Wikipedia page has been created detailing the tragically short but celebrated life of one of the city's best loved preachers: Rev Tom Allan.
Mr Allan's exceptional work - as a broadcaster, author, columnist and pioneer of practical church outreach in social work - began in his first parish of North Kelvinside in 1946.
It was then a densely built area of tenement buildings housing about 10,000 people. The statistics for his seven-year ministry are impressive as Church membership tripled from 400 to 1200. But the mere figures themselves, cannot convey the impact of Tom Allan's work upon the lives of the many hundreds of Maryhill people from all walks of life that he changed for the better.
Tom Allan wrote an honest assessment of this phase of his ministry in the 1954 book: 'The Face of My Parish'. The publication is still used in Practical Theology at Universities. Translated into several European languages it brought Tom Allan to global attention.
Soon after, he led The All Scotland Crusade with American evangelist Billy Graham which filled the Kelvin Hall to capacity every night for weeks on end in an extraordinary religious revival in Glasgow. He continued his pioneering, life-changing social work when he became Minister of St George's Tron in the city-centre - still referred to as 'Tom Allan's church' by older Glaswegians - for which he was awarded the St Mungo Prize in 1964.
His work was tragically cut short when he died of a heart attack in 1965.
The Tom Allan Counselling Centre honours his lasting legacy to the city today.
Liam I was invited to listen to Tom Allen once but missed the oppertunity. My loss. Another great man who preached in Glasgow was Henry Drummond. His book?..the greatest thing in the world. Sold All round the world. ! His church was in Saracen st .fantastic book.
where did u get book of Hebry drummond as i would be very interested in reading about him as I attended Henry Drummond church when I lived in Possilpark where i left in 1959 when I was just 14years old I never heard anything about him or how did the church be named after him I know it is no longer there.
I was very interested in the post on Tom Allan as our family were members of North Kelvinside Church all through the '50s and thought he was a marvellous man, and were sorry to see him move on to St George's Tron. He left behind a legacy of very dedicated people who did their best to follow in his footsteps. It is sad that the original church had to be demolished due to subsidence, it played such an important part in our childhood.
Was not Billy Graham ( he of the $3000 dollar suits ) the "evangelist" he who called the Vietnam war where 55'000 Americans and 2million Vietnamese died "a Crusade" yeh A real Christian.
I agree. But Tom Allan himself was a compassionate Christian who walked the talk.
I believe the situation with Billy Graham was that he was coming to Scotland anyway and the Church of Scotland had to make the difficult choice whether to endorse and join his crusade - with all its dubious but populist American razzmatazz - or to be seen to actively oppose it.
In the wider interests of Christian unity they supported it but that doesn't make Tom Allan an apologist for Billy Graham.