PO/15953, 2nd RM Battalion, Royal Marine Light Infantry, who died on 28th April 1917 aged 26.
Alfred is buried at Orchard Dump Cemetary, Arleux-en-Gohelle.
Born in Brundish in April 1891 son of Alfonso and Emma Pollard.
Died during the Battle of Arras at the Battle of Arleux.
Before the war he was a Royal Marine.
Personal details
Alfred was born in Brundish, and his parents were Farm Bailiff Alfonso Pollard [B.Brundish c1851] and Emma Pollard (nee Stone) [B.Brundish 1856]. In the 1881 Census they are living in Brundish, but appear to have lived in Swinton, Yorkshire for a few years in the 1870s. Altogether Alfonso and Emma had 8 children: Alice [B. Swinton, Yorkshire, 1877], Albert [B. Swinton, Yorkshire, 1879], Nellie May [B.Brundish, 1884], Mabel [B.Brundish, 1889], Alfred Percy [B.Brundish, 1891], Jessie [B.Brundish, 1894] and Harry [B.Badingham, 1899].
By 1901 the family had moved to Badingham, and sometime after this moved again to Hasketon. In the 1911 Census Harry is the only one of their children living with them, but they also have their grandson (Alice’s son) Eric Victor living with them.
1911 census (taken on 2nd April) Alfred can be found staying with his brother Albert and his family in Balby, Doncaster.
His mother Emma, is listed as next of kin who was notified of his death, address Manor Farm, Hasketon. Unfortunately his father Alphonso appears to have died in Woodbridge district Sept 1918.
Eric Victor Pollard, also on the Hasketon War Memorial, was Alfred’s nephew.
War service.
Alfred enlisted in York on April 3rd 1911, and subsequently joined the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marine Light Infantry on April 2nd 1911, just before his 20th birthday. He was a member of the 2nd Battalion which saw action in: The Evacuation of Helles in the Dardanelles (7/1/1916); the Battle of the Ancre, the final major engagement in the Battle of the Somme (13-14 November 1916); and the Battles of Arras in April 1917.
His death on 28th April 1917 suggests he took part in the Battle of Arleux, part of the wider Battle of Arras, where the 2nd Battalion attacked the German lines near Gavrelle.
