Children of Bedford and Emily Adelaide Pollard

daughter Edith Muriel born at 15 Brunswick Place, Hanley, Staffordshire

living with her family and a general servant at 11 North Street, Scarborough, Yorkshire

living with family and a general servant at 11 North Street, Scarborough

Ambulance Trains

by RSP (believed to be Reginald Sidney Pollard)

There's a branch of Army Service of which no one ever hears,

For it's chiefly when you make mistakes you get to people's ears:

And though you've slaved like ******* for two long bloomin' years,

You've never raised a scandal in the press.
 

You're the trains. What remains

Of the best of British brains

Is collected on the good old A.T.S.

Though the Churches may deplore you,

And the Daily Mail ignore you,

You're the Army's one unqualified success.
 

Though you're spared the front line trenches where the whizz-bangs never stop,

And you never have to 'stand to' or go across the top,

What with Frenchmen on the engines, and the Gothas on the hop,

You have your share of dangers all the same.
 

You remain on the train

When the bombs come down like rain;

Or you crawl along the footboards like a fly

With two dixies full of cocoa,

And a mile-a-minute loco,

Oh! you've lots of opportunities to die.

 

Men may grumble at their hardships, but that's because they've never

Had to live in small compartments in a war that lasts forever,

Or to face revolting jobs each day, and cheerfully endeavour

To keep a smiling dial all the time.

 

It's a strain on a Train:

It's enough to turn your brain,

With its brasses, and its windows, and its floors;

When the temp'rature is zero

Every man's a blasted hero

Though he isn't shooting Huns or forming fours.

 

For you live on broken victuals, and you sleep on broken nights,

And you smell some horrid odours, and see some dreadful sights,

And you never get the holidays you ought to get by rights,

Though you spend a week in Blighty once a year.

 

You're the stuff, right enough,

Though your manners may be rough,

And your language p'raps a trifle too emphatic;

But you're in the crew of crews,

What's it matter if your views

(And your clothes) are—shall we call it—democratic?

And whenever you are needed, you're always on the spot,

From Re'my down to S'ezanne, or wherever things are hot;

You will find the old A.T.'s are just behind.

It's a race to the base

At a hell-for-leather pace,

And back again as quickly as you please;

Though you have your purple patches

You're not mentioned in dispatches,

And you'll get no croix de guerres or O.B.E.'s

You're forgotten by Lord Northcliffe, never mentioned in John Bull,

But you're in the boat for all that, and you've got an oar to pull:

And your pockets may be empty, but your hearts are very full,

 

For you're dreaming all the time of home, sweet home.

And by gee, you may see

The last of 5 A.T

Rather sooner than you've any call to think;

Though there'll be no crowds a-raving,

No brass bands or flags a-waving,

There'll be someone waiting there to stand a drink.

Over thirty years of teaching lay ahead in Manchester, and during that period the Holiday Fellowship had benefit of his participation as a leader and committee member, while Friends responsible for Dalton Hall were able to rely on his wise advice and judgment.

Natural history in all its aspects was his lifelong hobby. In 1929, with Henry Garnett, he first led a small group of Friends to stay on the uninhabited Saltee Islands off Co Wexford. This he repeated eight times in the ensuing years with the reward, in 1938, of one of the most exciting ornithological records this century: while visiting a mainland tern colony en route to the Saltees his party found nesting avocets, at that time for that species the first breeding record in the British Isles for 98 years. H.F. Witherby published the event, with acknowledgment, in Volume 4 of The Handbook of British Birds then in preparation. So Reg has a niche in ornithological history as well as a warm place in the hearts of his many friends.

Lilian came to lunch on Sun. after meeting (she & Dad both spoke, it was very nice); she is a delightful person, seems & looks younger than me but is 84! We went there to coffee last night & got involved in violent arguments because Joe & Caro refused to sign the petition [. . . . ] Lilian signed [. . . . ]