Children of William and Lucy Pollard

Heard to-day that Sophie died yesterday. It is very sad. Fortunately F. saw her last week. He had been going to stay with her, but went to Winifred & Eric's as she wasn't well. She was so devoted to F. & so proud of him, & really caught cold 'hardening' herself in going out in cold winds, so as to hear F. speak on the 8^th or 9^th.

Sophie's funeral at Jordan's. Beautiful day, & all very nice & simple. All the Sparkes's looked ill, but were extremely nice . . . Harry & M^rs Darbyshire spoke in meeting house—he about how well Sophie had brought up her 4 boys, & so on. She was rather wonderful, & a good head of the family. I was very fond of her. Many people there.

I thought the occasion at Jordans a beautiful one: we were I am sure grateful to Harry, & to Mary Darbyshire for their moving & feeling words in the meeting house. My own mind goes back not only to Sophie's years of widowhood thus spoken of, but of my own childhood at Sale under her special care, & to early visits to Rochdale after her marriage. The wedding photograph by the bye is of wondrous interest!

Pollard book, Illustrated London News family record, both now at West Sussex RO; birth certificate

1881

of 51 St Paul's Road, Weston-super-Mare; d. there; formerly of Green Close, Kendal

The Friend 94:553, 1936-06-12

At about seven years of age I was installed in the bottom class of the "three lower" as day scholar. The "three lower" classes gathered in one schoolroom under separate junior teachers and one experienced master.

with family, moved to Reigate

Here a happy boyhood was spent with certain ups and downs owing to rude street boy enmities.

In the grounds of Joseph Crosfield, whose estate was quite near, we three brothers often disported ourselves at cricket, boating, and even bathing in their swimming bath. Herbert and Margaret, younger members of the family, frequently played cricket with us; sometimes even the graver older members joined in.

The South country afforded great scope for butterfly hunting. Reigate Hills were the home of many varieties and often did we three brothers wander there with our nets.

"For some time my brother Albert and I went to Miss Watson̓s dame school, where we did Kindergarten work."

One memory of school time is of the only occasion when I cheated. It was a spelling lesson and not being satisfied with the look of "rubarb", I glanced at the next boy̓s slate and added the "h".

My last touch with Croydon School was a Bible, which I still possess, a good deal the worse for wear. "Presented by the Friends̓ School, Croydon, to Bedford Pollard on the occasion of his becoming twelve years of age." That is on the fly-leaf in my handwriting. I think it was really intended as a leaving gift as only three or four weeks later, January '71, my brother Albert and I were established at Ackworth.

The journey north was broken for a few days at Leamington. Having no longer a home at Reigate and not yet in Sale, I wrote in my copybook, "Bedford Pollard, Leamington."

Of the remaining few months of my school life at Ackworth I will not speak. Painful memories of harshness and injustice towards myself, of absurd exaggerations of trivial misdemeanours on the part of many others are better consigned to oblivion.

"It was near the close '78 that I left Scarborough and came to my home at Sale, and after helping in a Friend̓s grocery shop with their Christmas trade" . . .

Early in '79 Quaker influence again came to my assistance. From a wholesale tea merchant I received a note: "Take thy apron to St. Mary̓s Gate on second day at 8 o̓clock. Wages 24s. a week. Do thy best."

For two and a half years I worked for the firm, being shortly advanced to the post of traveller, and much better wages.

The Friend LXVIII:102, 1929-02-01; GRO index; Pollard (1937)

Quaker influence again took me up the ladder. My father sounded James Reckitt and I was called to Hull. A new campaign was projected by the firm and presently I was sent to Birmingham to work under their head representative in introducing their manufactures widely, and creating a demand that wholesale houses could not ignore. In various towns I made my temporary abode: Wolverhampton, Dudley, Burton, Hanley, Leicester; working the districts round, returning to Birmingham later to give further impetus to the trade.

Somewhat of a rolling stone after two or three years under Reckitts, I went into partnership with a Friend, in Hanley. Here we built up a wholesale drysaltery and confectionery business. Friends were few in the Potteries, and scattered, and before long I drifted and attached myself to the Wesleyans. Always musically inclined, I joined the choir. Anxious to do useful work, I helped to foster the Band of Hope and associated myself with other social interests of the Chapel. A non-sectarian children̓s service organization was then in existence locally, and with my name on the plan I occasionally gave my services. In 1885, one August day, the 25th, I journeyed to Ackworth, where Frederick Andrews had offered me hospitality, and the following morning, in the company of my brothers, Albert, then a teacher, and Frank; a little scholar, we took the train to York, where Emily Adelaide Cross and I were united in holy matrimony at St. Olave̓s Church. After the customary festivities, amid showers of rice (it was before the days of confetti), we departed for a Welsh honeymoon.

Once again I sought "fresh woods and pastures new". I negotiated the turning over of my share in the business to my partner, and in Acocks Green, five miles south of Birmingham, we lifted up our eyes. An old-fashioned house with a delightful garden filled with fruit trees, and, at that time, in a charming suburb—all promised well. All went well. Another baby arrived as time went on. I undertook an agency for a special tea in which a brother-in-law and some of my family were interested, and began looking out for a business. We heard eventually of a grocery concern in Scarborough and after a good deal of correspondence we migrated thither and for eight years I put my nose to the grocery grindstone.

My chief outside interests during this period were connected with the choral society of the town, and the Congregational Mutual Improvement Society.

'For the Young. A Wonderful Lesson-Book' published in The Friend II May:129–30, June:199–200, Sept:250–1; of Scarborough.

As formerly in Hanley, and in Manchester, my interest in Band of Hope work was maintained. In 1897 I was invited to act as conductor at the Band of Hope Festival in the Circus. This was a great annual event in those days. It was a formidable responsibility. With 500 little faces before me and a broad flood behind—a crowded audience—I must have felt in a limelight such as erstwhile Horatius in Macaulay̓s ballad.

In 1898 foolish speculation having crippled me, I came to an arrangement with my creditors (some time later I was able to clear off the balances, receiving many acknowledgments of surprise and congratulations), and my brother-in-law took over the business. Influence again came to my aid and in the spring of '98 I entered the service of the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Manchester.

The last comer into the family, a girl, was born soon after we came to Manchester, and although established at work our home was changed several times as years went by.

For some time we attended Didsbury, or Mount Street Meeting, although I had resigned my membership soon after marriage. Eventually, while in Didsbury, we applied for admission, with the family; quite an occasion.

A most distressing time did we pass through in Didsbury. An outbreak of small-pox in the neighbourhood caught one of our daughters, and for some weeks we were all in quarantine, the victim being removed to the small-pox hospital.

After moving to Longsight I was drawn into the Adult School at West Gorton. These was a fine opening here— a working-class district—for Band of Hope and Sunday School, and for some years my chief interest was in those. From the adult side I was able to gather a choir, and many musical entertainments were given as time went on.

My taste for literary work one day found me a successful contributor to T.P.̓s Weekly, and forwarding this article to the C.W.S. Secretary, I appealed for a more congenial post. A few days later I was called out and transferred to the staff of the Wheatsheaf, a monthly journal issued in the interests of the co-operative movement. This contained sixteen pages of general co-operative interest dealing with the various factories and other co-operative and general features, to which retail societies added their own local matter. This became an important instrument of propaganda, eventually reaching a circulation of a million a month. This change over was in 1905 and at last I seemed to have settled down. After twenty-five years on this work, contributing and sub-editing, mostly passed in the Longsight printing works, I was retired on pension.

Then came the War, which made havoc of many stereotyped beliefs. I confess my own inability to view with calmness the invasion of Belgium, and shuddered to think, as I do still, of a world at the feet of Germany.

For two years I served as a volunteer special constable.

Previous to the War I had made one or two journeys abroad, chiefly to Paris and the Pyrenees. After that four years̓ breaks, devoted of necessity in holiday times to home scenes, every season found me a wanderer in foreign lands. Several times I explored the beauties of the Pyrenees, ranging from the Biarritz-San Sebastian end to the Canigou and Perpignan in the east. From here we (there were three of us on that occasion) creased the frontier to Barcelona and sailed thence to Palma in Mallorca. From the outset I have avoided popular resorts. Several times I have been through Switzerland, but only passed one night there, except in the train.

As years went by I explored Brittany and the Chateaux country, revelled in the beauties of Corsica and the Riviera, sailed up the Rhone and wandered in some of its ancient towns. Two summers found me in Italy; the second in company of a fellow Ackworth scholar, visiting Elba and Sardinia Capri and Sicily, en route. Another summer I came to Lisbon so picturesquely situated on its great river and journeyed through Portugal to Oporto, which included Cintra, Cascaes, Batalha, Leiria, Coimbra, Bussaco. Five thousand miles on a P. & O. cruiser included a recent scene of fighting, Ceuta, also Malta and Gibraltar. Belgium, with a peep at Holland, and lastly, Hamburg, and a wonderful Baltic tour including Denmark, Sweden and Finland, brought my Continental wanderings to an end, a serious illness undermining my health.

For many years I had issued a lecture syllabus of travel, and of literary subjects. Particularly in schools and colleges, the "Wit and Wisdom of Shakespeare" with slides and recitals, had been chosen; sometimes "The Boyhood of Shakespeare" as given from Manchester Broadcasting Station. Eventually I was recommended as a desirable member of the Royal Geographical Society and became a Fellow.

Bedford Pollard, F.R.G.S., of Manchester, has been on a Peace tour in the south and west, visiting Bristol, Burnham, Torquay, Bath and Weston-super-Mare. The title of his lecture was "How the nations need each other," illustrated by many slides. The attendances have been good, over 500 being present at Bristol. At all the meetings Peace literature was distributed, supplied in some cases by Friends' Peace Committee. Bedford Pollard has travelled much on the Continent and enlivened his address by many personal touches where he had made friendly contact with village folk, . . .

During the editorship of Edward Reynolds, many of my illustrated travel articles appeared in the Friend. Over a long period numerous local papers and other weeklies have printed similar contributions. The Manchester City News and the Stockport Advertiser have given space to definite Quaker articles on George Fox and William Penn anniversaries. Years ago Little Folks contained numerous mythological and other stories from my pen. At intervals, as years passed, various books of mine were published, The God of the Children, Everyday Miracles, Elsie̓s Adventures, Cleveland Hall.

My very dear Boy,

We were glad to find that thou hadst reached thy destination at last & we have been since often picturing thee at thy work, which I have no doubt seems very strange & novel to thee. But this will be soon got over & things will become easy & natural, as thou perseveres & does thy best—We shall hope to hear in a few days, a little account of thy first week's experience in learning business. I suppose thou wilt write on 1^st day—

. . .

Thou mayst be sure, my dear boy, we are often thinking of thee, & often pray for thee that thou mayst be strengthened to do what is right in all respects, & to persevere in those good resolutions recently renewed. Remember thou hast had lately a gracious Visitation of Heavenly love to thy soul, & be very careful to cherish it & obey the light that has been granted, & then more will be given. We are looking forward with bright hopes to thy future career as a Christian disciple, & pray that nothing may be suffered to hinder the Lord's work—Be very watchful in all things to keep a tender conscience & to do what is right without being watched & told; & the only way to keep a tender conscience is to obey conscience, & to keep up a regular plan of praying to thy Heavenly Father. Don't miss prayer on any account. Keep cheerful & hopeful, & never join in with any grumbling. Guard thy conversation & neither talk nor think anything thou would be ashamed for us to know. Try & be gentle & courteous in thy way of speaking, & try to overcome thy shyness & reserve. Be punctual. This will require an effort. Thou wilt have many difficulties, but there is no need to be discouraged. I have no doubt thou wilt succeed if thou keeps a good heart. Read this letter over 2 or 3 times.

Give our united dear love to cousin John & Eliza & believe me as ever Thy very affectionate papa.

. . . master at Saffron Walden School until 1890, when he left and became a Roman Catholic. This was followed by a year as a master at a Catholic School in St. Paul, Minn. U.S.A—returning to Rugby, England, to teach in a Catholic House of the Rosminian Order. Then for 3 years as a Novice at Wadhurst, Kent, followed by 3 more at the Headquarters of the Order at Domo d'Ossola, Italy [ . . . ]. Novices studying for the R.C. priesthood had a strenuous time, and in his 3 years in Italy, Uncle Will had to attend lectures in Italian and take notes in Latin.

Friends' School

Saffron Walden

5^th May, 1892.

Dear Sophie & Jo

                             I am writing to you, and to the other members of the family, to announce that I am probably leaving Walden next week; I think, on the Saturday. If you can get that week's budget to me by that time, well and good; if not, you'd better send direct to Emma, as I don't know where I shall be.

   I don't think it will surprise you very much to learn for certain what my intentions are. It is about a couple of years, I suppose, since I somewhat suddenly woke up to the fact that I was drifting towards the Catholic Church. That prospect, at first dreadful and apparently impossible, has since gradually become to me the whole hope and aim of my life. What the Church seems to me I can't tell you now, but there's all my lifetime to tell you in; how completely and incorruptibly She is the everlasting Bride of God, the Temple of the Holy Ghost. It would be wrong to say this is my opinion; I am so confident of its truth that I think I would die for it; for better for worse, I have submitted my whole soul to Her. My perpetual astonishment has come to be that none of my friends can see Her in all Her beauty and tenderness and wisdom, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all".

—I know a thousand objections that leap to your lips. Believe me, I'm not going to buy pardon of sins, or to adore the Virgin Mary, or to think that baptism ensures salvation, or to advocate burning of heretics, or to say that all Quakers will go to Hell, or to believe that "dead works" have a merit of their own, or to put anyone between myself & God; all these things no Catholic does or can do.—Then again I am prepared to be blamed on all hands for precipitation. I think I have not been precipitate; no one but me knows what long weary hopeless months I have passed, or how slowly I have come to each conclusion. But now, I am sure; and that means that it would be a deadly sin for me to wait here longer.

Of course I have written to, and talked with, a priest,—a most delightful gentleman and scholar in Cambridge; and through his means I hope to enter the haven where I would be, probably on Sunday the 15^th. I hope—in an obscure sort of way—that I shall after that spend a little time in some Catholic place to get a little initiated into my new duties.

   I need not say, surely, how dreadful the act of parting spiritually with all my dearest ones is to me; sometimes almost too dreadful to bear. But Quakerism is to me the City of Destruction; so what avails it to consider that side.

   Confident that you will sympathize with me in what you must see to be a somewhat trying time, I remain

                                       Yr loving brother

                                                                    W.H. Pollard.

[He] began his teaching at Ackworth and [ . . . ] obtained his B.A. degree; later, a master at Saffron Walden. Here, to my father's grief but his own spiritual gain, he became a convinced Roman Catholic and resigned post and membership. He would, he declared, have lapsed into agnosticism, had he not found this way out.

Finally, as chief priest at Bexhill-on-Sea, he died suddenly to the great distress of all his associates, and of his surviving brothers and sisters, by whom he was greatly beloved.

FATHER POLLARD'S SUDDEN END.

FOUND DEAD IN A CROWHURST TRAIN.

The death of the Rev. Father William Henry Pollard, the parish priest of the St. Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church, on Thursday morning, came as a great shock to the town, although circumstances seem to point to the fact that a sudden end was not unexpected by the priest himself. He had mentioned to some of his closest friends and his medical adviser that both his parents died suddenly, and spoke as if the same might be expected in his case.

It was Father Pollard's custom to visit "The Mount," Wadhurst, every Thursday, to minister to the students. On Thursday he left the Presbytery rather late, and had to hurry to the Terminus-road station in order to catch the 9.45 a.m. train. When he reached the station he was walking at an ordinary pace, and did not seem at all distressed. He took his seat in an empty compartment. When the train reached Crowhurst, where all the passengers had to change, he was noticed  by the Stationmaster, Mr. J. Wildish, to be sitting motionless in a corner seat, apparently asleep. Mr. Wildish attempted to arouse him, and noticed that something was wrong. He called the guard, Mr. E. Chatman, a trained ambulance man, who made an examination, but life was apparently extinct. A doctor was summoned from Battle and the Police were informed. The body was then removed to the Crowhurst Hotel, where it remained until Thursday night, when it was brought to Bexhill.

The Coroner was informed of the circumstances, but as Father Pollard's medical adviser, Dr. Harold Webb, was able to certify that death was due to heart failure, and that the deceased priest had suffered from heart trouble for some time, an inquest was not deemed necessary.

BROUGHT UP A QUAKER.

Father Pollard was born in the North of England, and was brought up as a Quaker, becoming a Roman Catholic as a young man. He graduated at London University, passing the external Bachelor of Arts examination. He went to America and taught in the town of St. Paul's, returning to England in 1894. He became a member of the Institute of Charity about 1897. Subsequently he went to Italy for his ecclesiastical studies. On his return he went to Ratcliffe college, Leicester, where he was Prefect of Studies for some years. After a short stay in Rugby he came to Bexhill in 1919.

About 60 years of age, Father Pollard was a distinctly intellectual man. The matter contained in his sermons was always good, although his delivery was inclined to be abrupt. He was very devoted to his work and, excepting a taste for literature, he had no interests outside his duties. He was liked by all with whom he came in contact, while those who knew him intimately had a great affection for him.

During the summer he became very run down, and was advised by his doctor to go for a holiday and a rest. He went to Ireland, but his highly strung nature could not stand inactivity, and he returned in a fortnight, improved in health, but with his heart still weak. Death appeared to be instantaneous and painless.

The flag in the churchyard was flown at half mast, when the news of the priest's decease was received.

The funeral has been arranged to take place on Monday morning, the service to immediately follow a Requiem Mass at 11 a.m.

William Henry Pollard: (scholar 1874–1878), was the second son of William and Lucy Pollard, and was born at Ackworth while his father was a teacher there. He was top boy when he went on to Bootham. He studied at the Flounder's Institute, and afterwards at Manchester University. He became a teacher at Saffron Walden, where he stayed until in 1890 he joined the Roman Catholic Church. He took this step largely as a result of the study of Cardinal Newman's works. He went for a year as a teacher in a Catholic school at St. Paul, Minnesota, and after returning to this country he went to Rugby to teach in a Catholic House of the Rosminian Order. He next was for three years as a novice at Wadhurst, in Kent, and for three more at Domodosola, in Italy, at the headquarters of the Order, to train for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1901, at Ratcliffe College, Leicester, and later was given a church at Bexhill-on-Sea. He died very suddenly after hurrying for a train, on October 25, 1923, aged nearly 61.

. . . to Maryport, not a very attractive little town, & John & Lily's house, tho' large, is not pretty . . . First time we have stayed with J. & L. Cuthbert & Ruth came in later. Lily has been ill, & little Chris's death upset her greatly, but she is better. Both she & John are very deaf—J. uses a trumpet always. He is so interesting.

At Reigate, Constance, the beloved child of William and Lucy Pollard, aged 3½ years. "He gathereth the lambs in his arms, and carrieth them in his bosom."

"Of such is the kingdom of heaven."

Arthur's folks have all had influenza and now Arthur has it. To-day's report is that "his cough is bad & as his pulse is very low" the Dr. says "he must not get up at all yet, as it is in the reaction after the fever in Influenza that people go about & then follows Pneumonia." So evidently he has a wise Dr."

Arthur B. Pollard, of Ulverston, has recently addressed meetings in various towns under the auspices of the Northern Friends' Peace Board. In October he visited Close House, Norton, and Stockton-on-Tees, Thirsk, Osmotherley, Acomb, Pickering and Pontefract, and in November Bishop Auckland, Earby, Burnley and Acomb for a second time. In each place he spoke upon the question of disarmament—occasionally in the open-air, but usually at indoor meetings, some of which had good press reports.

The Friend 92:744, 1934-08-10

The Friend 104:173–4

Wherever he found himself, he threw himself wholeheartedly into the work of the Society, sharing largely in the pastoral work of visitation and taking a lively interest in business meetings.

Many letters written at the time of his death bear witness to the wide range of his service and to the power of good which he became in the lives of so many in the course of his long and unwearying obedience to the call of Christ.

ARTHUR BINNS POLLARD, who died on November 1, was born at Reigate in 1870, a son of William and Lucy Pollard. His parents moved north while he was at Ackworth, and on leaving school he went to live with them at Eccles. It was there that he first became interested in the temperance movement, first as a member of the Friends Juvenile Temperance Society and then as an energetic worker for the Band of Hope and the Sunday School at Byrom Street, Manchester. In this work he came to know Edith A. Jackson, whom he married in 1896.

Later years saw him actively engaged in work for peace. He was a member of the Northern Friends Peace Board from its inception to the time of his death, and for some years was a member of the Friends Peace Committee. During the first World War he did much to help aliens and conscientious objectors in and near Ulverston, where he was then working for the Home Service Committee.

A concern which lay very near his heart was the extension work of the Society, and during his 30 years' secretaryship of the Westmorland Q.M. Extension Committee he was a constant visitor among the small Meetings in that area. On retiring to the south in 1939 he continued this interest, serving on the Bedfordshire Q.M. Extension Committee and that of his Monthly Meeting; during these last 10 years he did much visitation of Meetings, often at considerable cost to his health and strength. He gave of his best in ministry and friendship in the service of Christ to the last.

His happy nature and confident faith endeared him to many, and there was an inspiring strength about his presence in Meeting for Worship whether or no he engaged in the vocal ministry.