Harry Leopold Pollak was born on 18 July 1885 in Marylebone, Middlesex (now Greater London), the second of the eight children of Joseph Pollak (1847-1927) and Emma Jane Pollak née Goldmann (1863-1932), his birth being registered in the 3rd quarter of 1885 in the Marylebone registration district. His father was originally an Austrian who had become a naturalised British subject in 1875.
In the 1891 census he is shown as aged 5 years and living at 50 Hamilton Terrace, Marylebone, London, with his parents, four siblings: Charlotte Emily Pollak (1883-1964); Mary Lina Pollak (1886-1934); Edith Helen Pollak (1888-1961) and Leslie Albert Pollak (1889-1934), together with a governess, a cook, a nurse, a parlour maid, a housemaid, an under nurse and a kitchen maid. His father was described as a stockbroker.
His three remaining siblings were: George Francis Pollak (1894-1908); Alice Rhoda Pollak (1895-1921) and Sybil Victoria Pollak (1897-1960).
He attended Eton College, Windsor, Buckinghamshire (now Berkshire), where his housemasters were the Reverend Henry Daman and from 1898 Hugh Vibart Macnaghten. He is shown as a 15-year-old boarder in the 1901 census at 2 Jourdelay's Place, Eton. He left the college in 1902.
He was not shown on the 1911 census, but his family were living in a 40 roomed property at 12a Kensington Palace Gardens, Kensington, London. He was however shown on the manifest of RMS Amazon of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company as a 28-year-old 1st Class passenger travelling from Buenos Aires, The Argentine (now called Argentina), arriving in Southampton, Hampshire, on 27 December 1913. He gave his occupation as a farmer and claimed that The Argentine was his permanent place of residence.
He was again shown as a passenger, travelling 2nd class, aboard the RMS Alcantara from Buenos Aires to Liverpool, Lancashire, where he arrived on 28 December 1914. The ship's manifest showed him as a 29-year-old farmer whose last country of permanent residence was The Argentine but that England would be the country of his intended future residence. He gave his intended address as The Argentine Club, Hamilton Place, London.
On 4 April 1915 he was appointed as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Marines, serving in Gallipoli, Turkey, from 9 May 1915 to 31 July 1915. On 20 November 1915 he was promoted to Lieutenant and was still appearing as such on the quarterly UK Navy Lists as late as April 1916. The London Gazette dated 3 August 1916 confirms that on 24 July 1916 he was transferred to the Rifle Brigade. He was appointed to their 17th Battalion but was attached to their 2nd Battalion when he was killed in action, aged 31 years, on 23 October 1916. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Pier and Face 16 B and 16 C of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Rue de l'Ancre, 80300 Thiepval, France.
Probate records show that his address had been 21 Portman Square, London and that when probate was granted to his stockbroker father on 16 August 1917 his effects totalled £5,122-16s-5d. By 20 October 1920 his military effects totalling £89-10s-9d had been sent to his father. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as POLLAK. H.L. LIEUT. 2ND. RIFLE BRIGADE. on the Quebec Chapel war memorial at the Church of The Annunciation, Bryanston Street, London, W1H 7AH. He is also commemorated on the Libro d’oro displayed in the war memorial side chapel in Eton’s College Chapel since 1923, the year of its completion. It is based on a printed war list compiled by Eton's house master Edward Littlejohn Vaughan (1851-1940). His name is also listed on the Eton College war memorial, on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on the Imperial War Museum's Live of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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