Sir Hugh Allan was born on September 29, 1810, in Saltcoats, Scotland.

He was a Scottish-Canadian shipping magnate, financier, and capitalist. In 1819, his father Capt. Alexander Allan established the Allan Shipping Line, which became synonymous with transporting goods and passengers between Scotland and Montreal. Hugh received a parish education at Saltcoats before starting work in 1823 at the family's counting-house of Allan, Kerr & Co., of Greenock. In 1826, he moved to Montreal to work as a clerk for a grain merchant, William Kerr. By 1835, he was made a partner in the firm known as Millar, Edmonstone & Co. With his father's encouragement and capital, Hugh expanded the company's shipping operations, and J. & A. Allan (headed by his elder brother, James, in Glasgow) became closely involved with the building of the merchant fleet. By 1839 Hugh's younger brother, Andrew, had joined Edmonstone, Allan & Co. In 1851, Hugh was elected president of the Montreal Board of Trade. In 1854, he launched the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company as part of the Allan Line and took control of the Royal Mail contract between Britain and North America. By the 1880s, the Allan Line was the world's largest privately-owned shipping concern.

He also became a director of the Bank of Montreal, president of the Montreal Telegraph Company and he established coal mines in Nova Scotia and factories for textiles, shoes, paper, tobacco, and iron and steel in Central Canada.

In 1860, he built his home, Ravenscrag, at the Golden Square Mile in Montreal.

In 1844, he married Matilda Caroline Smith. He died on December 9, 1882, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is buried in Montreal, Quebec.