Walter Wallace Pollock was born on 24th September 1918 at Hillcrest, Cairns Drive, Milngavie. His father, Walter Craig Pollock, was a colliery salesman and had married Catherine Russell Wallace in 1910.
From the 1940 Valuation Roll, Hillcrest is 8 Cairns Drive:
By the time of the 1921 Census, the family were in Bearsden, at a house called Inver on Horseshoe Drive:
Walter has an older sister, Margaret, and an older brother, John. The family had a servant, 18-year old Sarah Morris from Maryhill.
Comparing this information to the 1940 Valuation Roll, Iver is number 6 Horseshoe Road:
Map from 1937 showing the position of Inver – Bearsden Cross is just off the map to the left of centre.
We get glimpses of Walter (father) in the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald, as a member of the New Kilpatrick Public Assistance Committee and as vice-president of a bowls club. When he stood down from his local government role in 1938, the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 19 November 1938 carried this tribute:
Walter (father)’s employer was William Baird and Co Limited, a name that means little to us today but at the time it was a major owner of coal mines in Scotland. Here is a list of their coal mines from the Durham Mining Museum website (link):
The company HQ was at 168 West George Street (viewed from Hope Street):
For a great history of the company, please use this link.
Walter (son) was a good golfer: aged 18 he achieved the following (Aberdeen Press and Journal 11th July 1936):
He obtained a degree from Glasgow University, a BSc in mining engineering, second class – presumably his interest in mining is linked to his father’s work. This clip is from the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 27 April 1940:
When he joined the armed forces it is no surprise to find him in the engineers:
In the first photo 142 OCTU refers to 142 Officer Cadet Training Unit. I have found one reference to it being based near Newark, Nottinghamshire.
His full service record has been requested, but at some stage he joined an Indian Army unit, King George V’s Own Bengal Sappers and Miners. Within this corps he was assigned to 47 Field Park Company and (thank you to David from the WW2 Talk forum for providing a link to a source) the unit can be tracked through Iraq and (briefly) Persia, now Iran of course. In 1943 following the Allied landings in Italy 47 Field Park Company landed in southern Italy and while their work is initially assigned is building dumps for stores from 1944 onwards the unit is mentioned in the context of building bridges across rivers, road maintenance in mountainous and wintry conditions, and clearing mines and booby-traps when the Germans retreated.
An example of a temporary bridge (Bailey bridge) built because the Germans destroyed bridges as they retreated – this one is over the River Po and was taken two days after Water died (and 50km away, although I have no reason to believe he was involved in building this particular one).
In April 1945 the war was very nearly won:
The pink areas were held by the Allies at the start of April with the red areas showing the gains. German forces in Italy were negotiating with the Allies and unconditional surrender was agreed on Sunday 29th April. Unfortunately, men were dying right up to that date (and after as well).
In circumstances currently unknown Walter died on Thursday 26th April 1945. The notification of his death in The Scotsman says he was killed in action:
By sad irony this appeared in the edition published on VE Day, 8th May 1945.
He was originally buried probably close to where he died and with help from Richard Lewis (to whom many thanks) we can place this at Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna:
Here is my attempt to reproduce this in 2025:
If I am right, then Walter was buried up this road on the right hand side:
He was re-buried in Bologna on 6th July 1945. His parents chose the words for his headstone: “Younger son of / Catherine and Walter Pollock / Bearsden, Scotland. / He died for us.”
