Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War D.S.O. group of five awarded to Captain W. F. Pollard, Royal Naval Reserve, commanding the Mine Sweeping Base at Malta 1917-18

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., the reverse of the lower suspension bar inscribed ‘February 22, 1918’; 1914-15 Star (Lt. Commr., R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Commr., R.N.R.); Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.V.R., mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (5) £800-1000

D.S.O. London Gazette 22 February 1918: ‘William Faulkner Pollard, R.D., Lieutenant-Commander (Acting Commander), Royal Naval Reserve. In recognition of his services in mine-sweeping operations abroad during the period June 1916 to June 1917.’

The group is sold with a quantity of original documents, including Warrant for D.S.O., three Commission documents, two Board of Trade Continuous Certificates of Discharge, and two Admiralty letters of thanks for services whilst at Malta.

William Faulkner Pollard was born in 1871, and served in H.M.S. Worcester from 1885 to 1888, before going to sea in the sailing vessel British Merchant. In 1894, he transferred to steam as Second Mate of the cargo ship Aldgate, after which he saw service with the China Mutual Company. Captain Pollard subsequently joined the old Red Star Line as a junior officer, and served in all the famous ships of that Company, both as Officer and Master before and after the First World War, as well as in the ships of its equally well-known associated Company, the Atlantic Transport Line.

Captain Pollard was a real Western Ocean sailor, coming from an old sea-faring family of many generations, and was one of the best known Captains sailing in and out of the ports on the eastern seaboard of the U.S.A. His last command before retirement in the middle 30’s was the Atlantic Transport Line’s last ship in service, the S.S. Maryland, which he finally handed over to the ship-breakers before stepping ashore for the last time.

Called up as a Lieutenant-Commander in 1914, he served as ‘Number One’ in H.M.S. Macedonia at the battle of the Falkland Islands, before being sent out to Malta in 1916 as Commander in charge of Minesweepers and Auxiliary Patrols, for which work he was awarded the D.S.O. After the Armistice, he was appointed Mine Clearance Officer, and was three times officially thanked by the Admiralty. He was promoted Captain, R.N.R., in 1925, and died in 1959.