Alfred Oliver Pollard

Alfred Oliver Pollard was born in Wallington, Surrey, on 4 May 1893, the son of James Alfred Pollard, an insurance executive, and Ada Jane Payne. Following his education at Merchant Taylors' School, he entered commercial life as an insurance clerk with the Alliance Assurance Company. Four days after Great Britain entered the First World War, he enlisted as a private soldier in the 1st Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company, on 8 August 1914.

Dispatched to France with the 1st Battalion in September 1914, he entered the front-line trenches near Kemmel that December. Promoted through the non-commissioned ranks to corporal and sergeant, he assumed leadership of the battalion bombing platoon. During a heavy engagement at Sanctuary Wood near Hooge on 30 September 1915, Pollard directed his men while sustaining severe bullet wounds. Facing a numerically superior and better-supplied opponent, his defense stabilized the local sector until a second serious injury forced his evacuation. Originally recommended for the Victoria Cross, he received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Following recovery, Pollard received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Honourable Artillery Company on 19 January 1916. A severe infection from a barbed-wire laceration temporarily removed him from combat upon his return to France, but by January 1917 he rejoined his battalion. On 7–8 February 1917 at Grandcourt, after conducting a hazardous reconnaissance patrol, he took command of an infantry company whose officers had become casualties and repelled two heavy German counterattacks, earning the Military Cross.

At Gavrelle in April 1917 during the Battle of Arras, Pollard reconnoitred enemy front-line positions under heavy fire to secure critical intelligence. Discovering that one of his reconnaissance party had failed to return, he re-entered the exposed area under direct fire, located the missing soldier, and successfully guided him back, earning a Bar to his Military Cross.

His most significant military action occurred at Gavrelle on 29 April 1917. Heavy German artillery bombardment and an infantry attack threw the troops on the left flank of the Honourable Artillery Company into confusion, precipitating an uncoordinated withdrawal. Realizing that a general retreat would imperil the defensive line, Pollard gathered a non-commissioned officer and four soldiers. Armed with hand grenades, the small party launched an immediate counterattack that broke the German advance, recaptured all lost ground, and pushed the line further forward.

The official citation published in The London Gazette on 8 June 1917 details the engagement:

"2nd Lt. Alfred Oliver Pollard, M.C., H.A.C. For most conspicuous bravery and determination. The troops on the left of 2nd Lt. Pollard's battalion having disorganised by various causes at a time when a very heavy enemy counter-attack was taking place, the line started to retire. 2nd Lt. Pollard, fully realising the value of the line, immediately rushed up to the wall, where he found a N.C.O. and four men who were holding the line. With these men he organised a counter-attack on his own initiative, and by his splendid leadership and total disregard of danger, he succeeded in driving the enemy back and recapturing the ground. This officer's splendid example inspired courage into every man who saw him."

King George V presented Pollard with his Victoria Cross, Military Cross and Bar, and Distinguished Conduct Medal at Buckingham Palace on 21 July 1917. He subsequently served as a tactics instructor for arriving American forces, acted as battalion adjutant, and joined the British Army of the Rhine during the occupation of Germany until demobilization in February 1919.

Pollard held a commission as a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force between 1924 and 1926. Re-entering civilian life, he established a career as a professional author, publishing over sixty mystery, crime, and espionage novels, alongside his 1932 military autobiography, Fire-Eater: The Memoirs of a VC. He died at Bournemouth on 4 December 1960. His medals and service sword were presented to the Honourable Artillery Company in 1961 and remain preserved within the regimental museum at Armoury House, London.