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Hugh Alexander Pollock
Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Alexander Pollock DSO (29 July 1888 – 6 November 1971) was a British publishing editor, who served as a soldier in the Royal Scots Fusiliers in the First World War and in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in the Second World War. Married three times, he was the first husband of Enid Blyton, and then Ida Pollock, both writers.
Hugh Alexander Pollock was born in Ayr, Scotland, the elder of the two sons of bookseller and publisher William Smillie Pollock (1858–1942) and his wife Jessie Smith McBride. He was educated at Ayr Academy. He and his younger brother Fred worked in his father's business.
He joined the British Army, and became a second lieutenant in the 5th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in May 1912. He married Marion Atkinson in October 1913, at the Hotel Dalblair in Ayr. They had two sons, William Cecil Alexander (1914–16) and Edward Alistair (1915–69).
In the First World War, he served with his regiment in Gallipoli, Palestine and France. He was a captain, serving as an adjutant, in September 1915. From December 1915 to May 1916, he had served as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front. He had been promoted to major, attached to the 12th Battalion, when he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1919. After the war, he served as a temporary captain in the Indian Army.
After leaving the army Pollock moved to England and joined the publishers George Newnes in London. He worked with Winston Churchill in the 1920s, editing Churchill's six-volume narrative history The World Crisis, published between 1923 and 1931.
Through Newnes Pollock met Enid Blyton, a writer nine years his junior, after she had been commissioned to write a children's book about London Zoo. Their relationship developed, and shortly after he divorced his estranged first wife he married Blyton at Bromley Register Office in August 1924; the couple spent their honeymoon in Jersey. After their marriage the Pollocks lived in a flat in Chelsea. They moved out of central London in 1926 to live at Elfin Cottage in Beckenham, and then to Old Thatch in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire in 1929. They had two daughters: Gillian Mary (1931–2007), and Imogen Mary (1935–2020). The family moved in 1938, settling in a large house in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire which was named Green Hedges by readers of Blyton's magazine Sunny Stories.
Pollock became a heavy drinker in the late 1930s. His marriage to Blyton came under severe strain, and she had a series of affairs, the most serious being with Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon, in 1941.
Pollock rejoined the Army after the outbreak of the Second World War and worked in the Cabinet Office. He was appointed a major in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in November 1940, and was appointed the Commandant of the War Office School for Instructors of the Home Guard in 1940, based at a (now demolished) country house at Denbies in Dorking.
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Hugh Alexander Pollock
Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Alexander Pollock DSO (29 July 1888 – 6 November 1971) was a British publishing editor, who served as a soldier in the Royal Scots Fusiliers in the First World War and in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in the Second World War. Married three times, he was the first husband of Enid Blyton, and then Ida Pollock, both writers.
Hugh Alexander Pollock was born in Ayr, Scotland, the elder of the two sons of bookseller and publisher William Smillie Pollock (1858–1942) and his wife Jessie Smith McBride. He was educated at Ayr Academy. He and his younger brother Fred worked in his father's business.
He joined the British Army, and became a second lieutenant in the 5th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in May 1912. He married Marion Atkinson in October 1913, at the Hotel Dalblair in Ayr. They had two sons, William Cecil Alexander (1914–16) and Edward Alistair (1915–69).
In the First World War, he served with his regiment in Gallipoli, Palestine and France. He was a captain, serving as an adjutant, in September 1915. From December 1915 to May 1916, he had served as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front. He had been promoted to major, attached to the 12th Battalion, when he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1919. After the war, he served as a temporary captain in the Indian Army.
After leaving the army Pollock moved to England and joined the publishers George Newnes in London. He worked with Winston Churchill in the 1920s, editing Churchill's six-volume narrative history The World Crisis, published between 1923 and 1931.
Through Newnes Pollock met Enid Blyton, a writer nine years his junior, after she had been commissioned to write a children's book about London Zoo. Their relationship developed, and shortly after he divorced his estranged first wife he married Blyton at Bromley Register Office in August 1924; the couple spent their honeymoon in Jersey. After their marriage the Pollocks lived in a flat in Chelsea. They moved out of central London in 1926 to live at Elfin Cottage in Beckenham, and then to Old Thatch in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire in 1929. They had two daughters: Gillian Mary (1931–2007), and Imogen Mary (1935–2020). The family moved in 1938, settling in a large house in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire which was named Green Hedges by readers of Blyton's magazine Sunny Stories.
Pollock became a heavy drinker in the late 1930s. His marriage to Blyton came under severe strain, and she had a series of affairs, the most serious being with Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon, in 1941.
Pollock rejoined the Army after the outbreak of the Second World War and worked in the Cabinet Office. He was appointed a major in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in November 1940, and was appointed the Commandant of the War Office School for Instructors of the Home Guard in 1940, based at a (now demolished) country house at Denbies in Dorking.