Reg Pollard (general)

Sir Reginald George Pollard
Lieutenant Colonel Pollard in Cairo, February 1942
Born	(1903-01-20)20 January 1903 Bathurst, New South Wales
Died	9 March 1978(1978-03-09) (aged 75) Wyrallah, New South Wales
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Australian Army
Service years	1921–1963
Rank	Lieutenant General
Service number	214 (NX70398) [1]
Commands held	2/31st Battalion (1941) Recruit Training Centre (1946) Australian Army Component BCOF (1953) Eastern Command (1957–1960) Chief of the General Staff (1960–1963)
Battles/wars	Second World War Middle East theatre Syrian campaign South West Pacific theatre New Guinea campaign Korean War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companion of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches
Other work	Australian Secretary to Elizabeth II (1970)

Lieutenant General Sir Reginald George Pollard, KCVO, KBE, CB, DSO (20 January 1903 – 9 March 1978) was a senior commander in the Australian Army. He served as Chief of the General Staff from 1960 to 1963.

Born in Bathurst, New South Wales, Pollard graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1924. A regular officer, he served as adjutant/quartermaster in several battalions of the Citizens Military Forces (CMF) during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1938, he was posted to England to undertake staff training, which was cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War. Pollard joined the Second Australian Imperial Force in 1940, and the following year saw action with the 7th Division in the Middle East, where he was mentioned in despatches. Promoted to colonel in 1942, he became senior staff officer of the 7th Division in New Guinea, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions. He spent much of the remainder of the war in staff and training positions in Australia.

Pollard's early post-war roles involved recruit training, land/air warfare, administration, and planning. In 1953, he was promoted to brigadier and took command of the Australian Army Component of the British Commonwealth Forces Korea. He joined the Military Board as a major general in 1954, and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire the following year. In 1957 he was promoted to lieutenant general and took charge of Eastern Command in Sydney; two years later he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath. Knighted in 1961, as Chief of the General Staff he presided over the Army's reorganisation as a pentropic structure, and worked towards making Duntroon a degree-granting institution. In 1962, he oversaw deployment of the first team of Australian military advisors to South Vietnam. After retiring from the military in 1963, Pollard became Honorary Colonel of the Royal Australian Regiment; he served as Australian Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II during the Royal Visit in 1970 and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order the same year. He died at Wyrallah, New South Wales, in 1978.