Born on 21 October 1875 the fifth child and fourth son of Samuel Pollard, a decorator, and his wife Mary Ann Marriott, he was educated at Nottingham grammar school and won an entrance scholarship to the London Hospital in 1894. After qualifying in 1899 he served as assistant medical officer to the North-East London Fever Hospital. Pollard practised throughout his career at 6 Harpur Place, Bedford, where he was medical officer to the Infirmary and assistant surgeon at the County Hospital. He was at first in partnership with Dr John Henry Lloyd. During the first world war he served as a Captain in the RAMC, and was a surgical specialist at Salonika and at the military hospital at Tidworth. Pollard married twice: (1) in 1908 Mary Stafford who died in 1941 leaving one son; (2) in 1945 Dorothy Emily Argent, who survived him without children. He died at 82 Clapham Road, Bedford on 22 March 1958 aged 82.