Born at Stonham Aspall, of the Rev John George Pooley, vicar of Stonham Aspall. He was educated at Tonbridge during the year 1882-3 and at Lancing for three years. He was admitted to Caius College Cambridge on 1 October 1886 but left without graduating after a residence of three years. He entered St George's Hospital and subsequently filled the post of house surgeon at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital and chief clinical assistant at Moorfields. During the South African war he served as a civil surgeon, and in 1906 was appointed ophthalmic registrar at St George's Hospital. On 2 October 1911 he received a commission as major in the RAMC (T) and was attached to the 3rd Northern General Hospital. He settled at Sheffield in 1909, where he became ophthalmic surgeon to the Royal Infirmary in succession to Simeon Snell and lecturer in ophthalmology at the Sheffield University. He gradually fell into bad health and died on 29 May 1937 while on holiday at Westgate-on-Sea and was buried there. Pooley was a man of considerable talent who carried on Snell's work on miners' nystagmus and invented an operation for the relief of glaucoma. He practised at 199 Greaves Street, Sheffield. Publications: Hydatid cyst of the orbit. *Ophthal Rev* 1912, 31, 257. Sclerostomy, an operation for glaucoma. *Ibid* 1913, 32, 202. Some technical points which increase efficiency of the operation for excision of the lacrimal sac. *Ibid* p 325. Case of cyst of the iris. *Proc Roy Soc Med* 1912-13, 6, Ophth p 140. On miners' nystagmus. *Ibid* 1913-14, 7, Neurol Ophth and Otol p 32. An improvement in local anaesthesia in operations upon the eye. *Ophthalmoscope*, 1914, 12, 464.