{"id":353,"date":"2016-06-13T12:14:37","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T12:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ulsterandthegreatwar.com\/?page_id=353"},"modified":"2016-06-15T15:06:12","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T15:06:12","slug":"paul-pollocks-war","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ulsterandthegreatwar.com\/paul-pollocks-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Pollock\u2019s War"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]Paul Pollock\u2019s War:<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Glasgow to Belfast and the Somme;<\/em><\/p>\n

An Ulster-Scots Family and the Great War\u00a0<\/em>(14th<\/sup> Service Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles. Killed 1st<\/sup> July 1916)<\/p>\n

Book launched at Linen Hall Library, Belfast, 1st<\/sup> July 2015<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]My own dear boy, I\u2019m proud to call you mine!<\/em><\/p>\n

Long shall the bravery of Ulster shine<\/em><\/p>\n

Upon the page of British martial fame,<\/em><\/p>\n

And hearts beat high at mention of her name<\/em><\/p>\n

Well done our gallant boys, you\u2019ve \u2018done your bit\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

And done it gloriously…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 extract from Rev. John Pollock\u2019s poem to his son Paul.<\/em><\/p>\n

 [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”432″ img_size=”large” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Glasgow-born, Paul Pollock (1896\u20131916) was one of the thousands of young men killed in the Great War. His body was never found and until recent years his name was not recorded on the Thiepval Memorial. The letters he wrote home, from July 1915 until June 1916, have been treasured by the family ever since. Revealed in this book for the first time, the letters paint an intimate picture of Paul\u2019s experiences as a young man in the Royal Irish Rifles, of his friend the war photographer George Hackney, and of the admiration and anguish of his father, Rev. John Pollock of St Enoch\u2019s Presbyterian Church in Belfast.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

About this project<\/h3>\n

This 100 page book is the work of Mrs Elizabeth Bridges and Peter Fisher. Born and raised in Belfast, Mrs Bridges is Rev John Pollock\u2019s granddaughter. In the century since the Great War, the family had treasured the remarkable collection of Paul Pollock\u2019s war letters and brought them to the attention of the Ulster-Scots Agency in 2013. In addition, Peter Fisher had carried out genealogical research into the family\u2019s Scottish mercantile origins, and so the book traces an Ulster-Scots family lineage from the early 1800s to the present day.<\/p>\n

A number of appendices provide further detail, on St Enoch\u2019s Presbyterian Church in Belfast (then the largest Presbyterian Church in the British Isles), the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Reunion which was held there in 1884, Christian Endeavour, George Hackney, Presbyterian Memorials and the Great War and also of Royal Belfast Academical Institution (\u201cInst\u201d) and the Great War \u2013 Paul Pollock\u2019s name features on the War memorial at the school. Through the efforts of Alan Curragh, Paul Pollock\u2019s name, once absent from the Thiepval Memorial in France, has recently been inscribed there.<\/p>\n