Hugh Pollard

Major Hugh Bertie Campbell Pollard (born London 6 January 1888: died Midhurst district March, 1966) was an author, journalist, adventurer, firearms expert, and a British SOE officer. He is chiefly known for his intelligence work during the Irish War of Independence and for the events of July 1936, when he and Cecil Bebb flew General Francisco Franco from the Canary Islands to Morocco, thereby helping to trigger the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. He served his country in both World Wars and was the author of many published works on weaponry, in particular on sporting firearms.

Early life Hugh Bertie Campbell Pollard was born in London on 6 January 1888, the son of the physician Joseph Pollard. At nine years of age he was sent to Westminster School as a day boy, but spent much of his time on his grandfather's estate in Hertfordshire, where he became an expert shot and first developed what became a lifelong interest in hunting and firearms. where he engaged in a number of adventures (as narrated by himself), including a risky mission to collect rent from a remote coffee plantation, and the shooting of much wild game. Along the way he became fluent in Spanish. He also became involved in the escape of Porfirio Diaz from Mexico.

At around this time Pollard began his propaganda-writing career for Wellington House, by inventing a "Phantom Russian Army" which was allegedly travelling by train from Scotland to support the British Expeditionary Force; a story which was even given credence by The New York Times. Pollard also invented an anti-German atrocity propaganda story about "corpse factories", in which the German government was said to be melting down corpses to make margarine. As a result of his creativity, Pollard found himself recruited by MI7. The press-release included photographs of the purported scene of the battle. These were republished in a number of Irish and English papers before the actual location was identified as Vico Road in Dalkey, a quiet seaside Dublin suburb. The entire event had been staged by Pollard and Captain Garro-Jones, a colleague of Major Cecil Street, and was without foundation. In December 1920 in the House of Commons, the British government denied any knowledge of these pictures or the circumstances in which they were produced.

Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Pollard recorded his interpretation of the history of Irish nationalist organisations in Secret Societies of Ireland, Their Rise and Progress. He alleged that the Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain, had been assassinated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), rather than by forces acting for the British Crown.

Spanish Civil War De Havilland Dragon Rapide, G-ACYR, the aircraft that carried Franco to Morocco 1936. Photographed at the Museo del Aire. Madrid (2014) Pollard was a devout Roman Catholic and a supporter of the conservative side in Spain in the years leading up to the Spanish Civil War. He and Cecil Bebb played an important role in the events leading up to the outbreak of hostilities. Pollard was described by the Nationalist volunteer Peter Kemp as being "one of those romantic Englishmen who specialise in other countries' revolutions".

During lunch at Simpson's-in-the-Strand, Douglas Francis Jerrold, the conservative Roman Catholic editor of the English Review (and also a British intelligence officer), met with the journalist Luis Bolín, London correspondent of the monarchist and right wing newspaper ABC and later Franco's senior press advisor. They conceived a plan to move General Franco from the Canary Islands to Spanish Morocco, where the Army of Africa was stationed. The Madrid government recognised that Franco was a danger to the Spanish Republic, and had sent him to the Canaries to keep him away from political intrigue. If a Spanish plane flew to the islands, the authorities would most likely be alerted, but a British aircraft would attract little or no attention. Bolin asked Jerrold to find "two blondes and a trustworthy fellow" to carry out the mission, to make the group look like tourists. The group charted a de Havilland Dragon Rapide aircraft, piloted by Cecil Bebb, which flew out of Croydon airport, London, at 07.15 on the morning of July 11, 1936, bound for the Canaries. Pollard and Bebb delivered Franco to Tetuán on July 19. The general assumed command of the Army of Africa, which had rebelled two days earlier and already secured most of Spanish Morocco.

It is possible that British intelligence services may have been complicit in the flight. However it is not clear yet how much the British government knew or was involved in these activities, or if the Britons involved were in fact acting on their own. Britain remained officially neutral during the Spanish Civil War.

The adventure earned Pollard the sobriquet The Spanish Pimpernel from Life Magazine. After the war, in 1958, Pollard and his companions were personally decorated by General Francisco Franco, who awarded all four the Knights Cross of the Imperial Order of the Yoke and Arrows.

Pollard continued to support the Nationalist cause. In 1937, after the bombing of Guernica, Pollard wrote a letter to The Times stating that Guernica was a "perfectly legitimate" target, being a centre of small arms manufacture, one which supplied weapons to terrorists: Pollard argued later in his letter that the Basques who supported the Spanish Republic were "simply reaping what they have sown":

World War II When war broke out in 1939, Pollard briefly fell under suspicion for fascist sympathies. In December 1939 West Sussex police raided the Kent flat of Nora Dacre-Fox, whom MI5 suspected of being a fascist sympathiser. During the search, police discovered Pollard's name in her address book. Pollard was to be arrested, but MI5 instructed their regional liaison officer in Kent to "lay off" Pollard. (Available for web viewing here). Automatic Pistols, London, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1920. Shot-Guns; Their History and Development, London, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1923. A History of Firearms, London, Geoffrey Bles, 1926. The Sportsman's Cookery Book, London, Country Life, 1926. The Gun Room Guide, London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1930. Game Birds and Game Bird Shooting, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1936. The Story of Ypres, at Internet Archive also A Busy Time in Mexico: An Unconventional Record Of a Mexican Incident, Internet Archive also Fox Hunting - The Mystery Of Scent British & American Game-birds, London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1939 The Secret Societies of Ireland, Their Rise and Progress Internet Archive (1922) The keeper's book; a guide to the duties of a gamekeeper (1910) with Sir Peter Jeffrey Mackie