Peterborough & The Great War

Biography

Cuthbert Poll was born in Ditchingham, Norwich on 7 September 1890, to parents Charles, a farmer and land agent, and Georgina.   Cuthbert had an older sister Dora Mace born in 1889.  In 1911, after his mother had died, the remaining family were living at Old Hall Farm, Ditchingham and Cuthbert had become an articled clerk to a solicitor in Victoria Chambers, Norwich.

He enlisted in to the 1/1^st Battalion Norfolk Yeomanry in September 1915.  That month the regiment embarked on RMS Olympic with 25 officers and 504 men for Gallipoli, landing on the peninsula on 10 October 1915.  His medal record reveals he was posted to the Balkans  and was eventually evacuated from Sulva beachhead on 20 December 1915.  Cuthbert was awarded the 14/15 Star and British War and Allied Victory medals.

Corporal Poll passed through Peterborough East Station and signed the visitors’ book on 28 January 1917.  His entry states he was serving with the Signal Troop, Eastern Mounted Brigade.

On the 8 February 1917, he was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant in the Norfolk Regiment and by July 1918, Cuthbert was a Lieutenant serving with the 6^th (Cyclist) Battalion (Territorial).

Cuthbert married Marion Mapp in Brentford in 1924, and the couple had a son Michael born in 1926 after settling in Norfolk.

We have traced Cuthbert and Marion in the 1939 Register and they are living at 11 Pinewood Close, St Faith’s and Aylesham R.D. Norfolk and Cuthbert is a qualified solicitor and served as a Special Police Constable during WW2.

Cuthbert died in Norwich in 1967 at the age of 76.

Is your family name Poll?  Please get in touch if you can tell us more about Cuthbert.