Allcock obtained his B.Sc. in 1953 and his Ph.D. in 1956, both at the University of London. He is notable for his work on the "inorganic rubbers" with a phosphorus-nitrogen backbone (polyphosphazenes). With James E. Mark and Robert West, Allcock co-authored the book Inorganic Polymers (Oxford University Press, 2005). He also wrote Introduction to Materials Chemistry (John Wiley & Sons, 2008), Phosphorus-Nitrogen Compounds Cyclic, Linear, and High Polymeric Systems (Academic Press, 1972), Chemistry and Applications of Polyphosphazenes (Wiley-Interscience, 2002, and co-authored Contemporary Polymer Chemistry (Prentice Hall, 2003) with Fred Lampe and James Mark.
Allcock was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2014 for the development of polyphosphazenes, a new class of biomaterials.
Awards and honors
American Chemical Society National Award in Polymer Chemistry (1984)