QUICK PROMOTION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 36, 12 February 1943, Page 4

QUICK PROMOTION

LIEUT.-COL. POLLOCK, M.B.E,

From private to the rank of colonel in three years is the service record of *an Aucklander, whose name appears in the list of overseas promotions to-day. Lieut.-Colonel G. D. Pollock, M.8.E., enlisted the day after war broke out. In camp he was soon quartermaster - sergeant which rank he held for six weeks. He was then given his first commission of second-lieutenant, and left with the First Echelon as firstlieutenant and O.C. of the Light Aid Detachment of the Engineers. For bravery in the first Lybian campaign he was awarded the M.B.E. Afterwards he took part in the Greece and Crete campaigns. On his return to Egypt he was promoted to captain in July, 1941. Shortly afterwards be became a major, and now has gone up a further step.

Born in the South Island and educated at Canterbury College, he came to Auckland and joined the staff of the Shell Oil Company, and afterwards of Schofield's, Newmarket. The manager of one of the firms stated this morning that Pollock was the most brilliant salesman they ever had. On his final leave he was married to Miss Molly Gray, of 40, Kohimarama Road, Auckland. The citation on receiving the M.B.E. award said: "Pollock has shown excellent power's of leadership and command, thereby encouraging his men in the performance of arduous duties under adverse conditions."