James Dalgleish Pollock

He bombed the enemy from a parapet under heavy machine fire.

James Dalgleish Pollock was born in Tillicoultry, Scotland, in 1890. After his father's death, his mother brought the family back from Wales. He attended the local public school and trained in the textile trade. His work took him to Glasgow and, from 1912, Paris. He returned to enlist in the Cameron Highlanders in September 1914 and reached France in May 1915.

On 27 September 1915, near the Hohenzollern Redoubt, German bombers were forcing their way along Little Willie trench. Pollock obtained permission to climb outside the trench and attacked them from above. Exposed to machine-gun fire, he moved along the parapet throwing bombs and held up the advance for about an hour, until wounded in the arm. King George V presented his Victoria Cross that December.

Pollock subsequently trained for a commission and returned to France as an officer. In April 1917 a rifle grenade exploded prematurely, costing him the sight of his left eye. He left the Army as a lieutenant in 1919 and married Margaret Bennett, whom he had met while training in Ayrshire. He worked in the disposal of surplus war stores, became a director of an importing company and later worked in the hosiery industry. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Observer Corps. He died at Ballochmyle Hospital, Ayrshire, on 10 May 1958 and was buried in Ayr Cemetery.