Pageturners: A real-life Villain

"If you can unravel him you need to know all the tricks of Mr. Smiley and James Bond. I confess that all I know about him is mischief."

Welcome to Pageturners, a book I’m writing in which I share what I’ve learnt – and am still learning – about comic writing, film writing, novel writing and how new writers can sell their stories. I’ll publish a chapter or a section per week, available for free here on Iconoblast. And I welcome your feedback or questions, so do leave a comment below!

Missed the Pageturners intro? Read it here.

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Illustration by David Broughton

A great villain needs a detailed case study and real-life Hugh Pollard is so superb as a villain he actually appears in very different ways in three of my stories: Ragtime Soldier as a historical character. Hellbreaker as a science fiction character. And he also features in a forthcoming novel.  

To some, he might even appear as a hero.

Three stories financially justifies the in-depth research needed and allows me to really explore his character. As we all know, great villains can make or break a comic, novel or movie. My saga Nemesis The Warlock would be nothing without Torquemada. When I first came across Pollard, I knew he had enormous potential in a story and I’ve been gathering information on him ever since, reading all his books and following up every account of him on the internet and in other authors’ recollections of him. Wikipedia describes him as follows:

 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.

“Certain jobs Pollard apparently could do well, but he was definitely unreliable where money and drink was concerned.”

The journalist Macdonald Hastings wrote of Pollard that he was "a fascinating person, who probably had a greater impact on events than he cared anybody should know. If you can unravel him you need to know all the tricks of Mr. Smiley and James Bond. I confess that all I know about him is mischief. He was a remarkable man".

This Wikipedia account gives some indication of what he was like – a mixture of Flashman, James Bond and John Le Carre’s Smiley. This was the man who started the Spanish Civil War, undoubtedly with the knowledge of the British government because he was later head of intelligence in Madrid. His views on the Irish were ruthless, elitist and racist. He was an admirer of the Black and Tans and played a key role in the Irish War of Independence, faking photos of Irish ‘atrocities’. He must have been marked down for death by the Republicans, but somehow he escaped assassination. There’s a story I hope to pursue one day! He was an excellent and sometimes amusing writer with an obsession for weapons that went back to early childhood. His authoritative books on firearms are still consulted to this day. 

He loved guns! He had daggers that he claimed belonged to Jack the Ripper. He wrote black magic novels. He’s the villainous gift that goes on giving. 

Above all, he was a master of propaganda. Many of the hate-inducing lies about World War One were dreamed up by him. For instance, the appalling story that the corpses of German soldiers were being turned into soap by the authorities. Pollard was doubled up with laughter when he talked about it to a family member: 

 ‘The tears ran down his cheeks as he told us of the story they had circulated of a consignment of soap from Germany arriving in Holland and being buried with full military honours.’ 

He invented the ‘Phantom Russian Army’: the story of an army of Russians that had travelled by train from the north of Scotland and were embarking to support the British Expeditionary Force. Pollard came up with the charwoman who ‘knew it was them Roosians’ because she had swept the snow off their boots from the carriages! 

I believe he came up with the other well-known propaganda story – widely believed at the time – that the Germans hung nuns upside down in bells and used them as clappers. It’s Pollard’s style and I could imagine him laughing his head off about it to his fellow propagandists. He would take the view that the more crazy the story, the more the public will believe it. 

That’s certainly true of our own times, too. Look at The Sun or The Daily Mail. Or the Guardian, for that matter. Most people believe the nonsense they often come out with.

A fervent Catholic, he was into the occult, and under the alias Oliver Bland, wrote The Adventures of a Modern Occultist. An expert criminologist, a consultant on chemical warfare, an antique weapons collector, and a member of the Frontiersmen (a British secret society), there seems no limit to his dark talents. An editor of Country Life and a keen huntsman, he even invented a device – The Pollard Scentmeter – for tracking foxes! Handsome and cruel looking, he is similar in appearance to a young Oliver Mosley, leader of the British fascists. 

Here’s how he appeared in Ragtime Soldier:

Ragtime Soldier by Pat Mills. Pencils: Gary Walsh. Inks & Letters Phillip Vaughan. Editor: Chris Murray

Leader of the Frontiersmen, he’s in Dundee to violently suppress the opposition to Winston Churchill, who failed to be elected as the city’s member of parliament. Instead, a conscientious objector spectacularly won the election! Artist Gary Welsh told me how much he enjoyed drawing Pollard. Perhaps Pollard will return if we can get further episodes of Ragtime Soldier off the ground.

And in the forthcoming Hellbreaker: Fire in the Blood, Ian Ashcroft has captured him perfectly:

Looking at a photo of Pollard firing a gun, immediately makes you think of (the original) James Bond. His heavy drinking only adds to that impression.

Major Hugh Bertie Campbell Pollard. Author, firearms expert and secret service agent.

As you can see, he’s an astonishing character and you may wonder why no-one has made a film about him. The answer, of course, is he presents the British establishment in a negative and sinister light, so it’s unlikely to ever happen.

Macdonald Hasting’s description of Pollard lingers in my mind: ‘I confess that all I know about him is mischief.’  

I didn’t know about Pollard when I wrote Charley’s War, but his character is remarkably similar to the villainous Captain Snell, a prominent character in that saga and a well-hated bad guy. It’s a certain British officer type I was aware of from my childhood and that probably explains why I’m so fascinated by them. 

So I’m delighted to have finally found a home for Pollard in Hellbreaker, where he is now the star villain. And also in a forthcoming text novel. In Hellbreaker I tried out several villains, but they were all just seven out of ten. Then I remembered Pollard, changed the script accordingly, and he is twenty out of ten! He’s the perfect enemy for Hellbreaker, just as Torquemada is the perfect enemy for Nemesis. And Captain Snell was for Charley.  

I think it’s Pollard’s voracious appetite for life that fascinates me. Torquemada and Snell also had that quality.

There are other villains out there like Pollard and they are all worth tracking down. But it does require a considerable investment of time. 

Next week: Hunting a hero