William Pole (1814-1900)., M. Inst C. E.
1814 April 22nd. Born in Birmingham.
1840 William Pole became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.[1]
The East India Co appointed him Professor of Civil Engineering in Elpinstone College, Bombay.
1847 He returned to England.
At some point Dr Pole became one of the three Gas Referees for the Metropolis.
1859-67 He was Professor of Civil Engineering at University College.
1861 Member of the Committee on Armour.
1861 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society.
1864 Elected into the Athenaeum Club as a man of scientific distinction.
1865-67 Secretary to the Royal Commission on Railways.
1867-69 Secretary to the Royal Commission on Water Supply.
1876 Vice President for the Royal Society.
1882-84 Secretary to the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into Pollution of the Thames.
1885 Secretary to a Committee on the Science Museums at South Kensington.
1885-96 Hon. Secretary to the Institution of Civil Engineers.
1871 Moved to Japan. Was a consulting engineer for the Imperial Railways of Japan for 12 years.
1877 Admitted into the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
1889 Vice President for the Royal Society.
1889 Elected an honorary member of the College of Organists. [2]
1901 Obituary [3]
WILLIAM POLE was born in Birmingham on the 22nd April, 1814, his father being Thomas Pole, of that town.
At the age of fifteen he was articled for six years to Mr. Charles H. Capper, an Engineer in Birmingham who represented the Horseley Company, at whose extensive works the pupil was enabled to lay the foundation of the extensive knowledge of engineering which he afterwards attained.
One of his early experiences was a visit paid to the Horseley Company by the Princess Victoria, then eleven years of age, who was much interested in seeing one of the old copper coins, weighing an ounce, forged to an ingot and then rolled out to a strip nearly 25 feet long, with a thickness of about inch. In 1836, a year before the Princess became Queen, young Pole came from Birmingham to London, and, as he died three weeks before Her Majesty, there was a marked coincidence in the duration of their life-work.
In London his first practical work was done as Manager of a Gasworks; this was followed by other employment in the warming and ventilation of buildings, which included the arrangement of warming apparatus for H.M.SS. 'Erebus' and 'Terror' on their Arctic voyage.
In 1841 his attention was drawn to the subject of pumping-engines in the mines of Cornwall, with the result that, after some gears of study and research on the spot, he published in 1844 his classical work on the Cornish Pumping Engine.
During the first gears of life in London he felt the uncertainty of engineering occupation, and sought, but without success, to obtain the Assistant Secretaryship of the Royal Society, and also the post of Assistant Surveyor to the Westminster Commission of Sewers. The time to come open& out far larger prospects.
At the beginning of 1844, when nearly thirty years of age, he was appointed the first Professor of Engineering in the Elphinstone College at Bombay, where he arrived in the following July. At that time such a position was an entirely new thing; there was but one other such appointment in existence, and the new Professor had to originate everything in dealing with the Parsee and Brahmin youths who formed his pupils. They were instructed in surveying, levelling and mensuration, to such good effect that the first survey made for what afterwards became the Great Indian Peninsular Railway was carried out by them in 1846, under their Professor's guidance.
In November of that year Professor Pole was married in Bombay to Matilda, daughter of the Reverend Henry Gauntlett, Vicar of Olney, in Buckinghamshire. For nearly fifty-four years she was his devoted partner, and from the shock of her death in October, 1900, he never rallied.
Early in 1847 he was warned that his health would no longer stand the climate of India, so his career there ended after a stay of less than three years. With his usual industry he had acquired a knowledge of Italian, which he improved by spending four months in Italy on the return journey to England.
At the beginning of 1848 be resumed work in London. His first occupation was under Mr. James Simpson, Past-President, and afterwards with Mr. J. M. Rendel, Past-President; and when in 1854 he was sent by Mr. Rendel to give explanations to Count Cavour, that statesman was surprised at Italian being preferred for use by the English engineer.
It may be said of Professor Pole that his position in Westminster was made and secured, not only by his great scientific ability, but by his scientific knowledge being in advance of his time. When the application of higher mathematics to practical purposes, now a usual feature in the training of an engineer, was quite new, he was one of the few who could thus use mathematical science. Hence his services were in constant request by men whose names, as associated with great undertakings, were far more before the public than his was, but it, was on him that they leaned for the scientific investigation of their designs.
So long ago as 1860 he was addressing the Institution on the subject of Tubular Girder Bridges, and applying the calculus to the investigation of the Torksey Bridge, as to which some difference had arisen between the engineer responsible for the design and the Government inspector. At the same time he was engaged by Robert Stephenson in the calculations for the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits, and always retained and highly valued a letter written to him by Stephenson relative to it, which ran as follows :-
'14th June, 1851.
'MY Dear Sir, - May I beg your acceptance of the accompanying print of a work, the principles of whose structure you have contributed so much to elucidate. Yours faithfully, 'ROBT. STEPHENSON."
Having joined the Institution as an Associate on the 7th April, 1840, he was transferred to the class of Members on the 12th February, 1856, and, his position now becoming assured, he felt justified in beginning practice on his own account, at No. 3 Storey’s Gate, in 1858. His office there, and subsequently in Parliament Street, was on a small scale - a couple of rooms sufficed him. His work was never delegated to subordinates; his staff consisted of a clerk or two. He not only thought out but almost always himself wrote out the mass of information whicb it is the purpose of this notice to show that he gave to the profession and to science generally.
Although he had no patrons in official life, his services were from the first retained by Government in connection with several subjects of remarkably varied nature. His first work for the Government was the making of calculations on scientific questions for a Commission on the Main Drainage of the Metropolis; then came an engagement as Lecturer on Engineering to the Royal Engineer officers studying at Chatham.
In 1861, in recognition of his elaborate researches into the subject of colour-blindness, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and soon afterwards his name, with that of Sir William Fairbairn, was placed on the list of a Select Committee, otherwise of naval and military officers, for the investigation of the then new question of the application of armour to warships and fortifications. On the completion of this task in 1865, Dr. Pole became Secretary to a Royal Commission, presided over by the then Duke of Devonshire, on the Railways of Great Britain and Ireland, and he prepared the report, which was submitted in May, 1867.
Having thus passed from armour plates to railways, he next turned to the water supply of the Metropolis, acting as Secretary to a Royal Commission under the presidency of the Duke of Richmond, and it was again almost entirely by the Secretary that the report was drawn up. This led to his appointment, again under Government, to investigate the system of constant service in the water-supply of London, and he aided in that being established by Act of Parliament in 1871. While busy with the last-named occupation he was helping the War Office by reporting on the construction of the Martini-Henry rifle, arranging for the India Office the terms of examination of candidates for engineering appointments in that country, and taking up a position, which he held till 1899, as one of the three Gas Referees for the Metropolis.
From 1882 to 1884 Dr. Pole was Secretary to yet another Royal Commission on the Disposal of the Sewage of London, and in 1884 he acted in the same capacity for a departmental committee, with Sir Frederick Bramwell as President, on the Scientific Museums at South Kensington. Such a record of work for the Government would seem enough in itself to fully tax the energies of a man of more than average capacity; but,, far from that being the case, Dr. Pole was all the while engaged in other engineering work, in literature, in music, in the revival and establishment on its present basis of the game of whist, besides some few other outlying hobbies, such as modern languages, physiology, and the study of jewels and of colour-blindness.
Dr. Pole was from 1859 to 1867 the Professor of Civil Engineering in University College, London. In 1859 he was busy with the investigation of steam traction on canals, and a few years later with iron lighthouses for the colonies; in 1865 he proposed a light mountain railway at Malvern to ascend the Worcestershire Beacon. The subject of mountain railways was always an attractive one for him he described that over the Brenner Pass to the Institution,’ and in 1873 he presented a Paper on the Rigi Railway, which was read before the Institution2 and was awarded a Telford Medal.
From 1871, two years after the introduction of railways in Japan, till 1883, he acted as Consulting Engineer in England for the Japanese Government, taking a most important part in the inception of those lines; for all designs for the chief works of construction, etc., were prepared by him, and his reports and letters of advice, almost all in manuscript from his own pen, really laid the foundation of the railway system in Japan ; though, of course, the selection of routes and matters dependent on local conditions were determined by the engineers on the spot.
In 1873 he was engaged with Mr. W. H. Barlow, Past-President, in the calculations for the bridge first proposed over the Forth at Queen’s Perry. In 1880, after the collapse of the first Tay Bridge, he was associated with Messrs. Law and Stewart in giving scientific evidence before the Court of Enquiry appointed by the Board of Trade to report on the causes of the disaster. He was frequently occupied with questions relating to the water supply of towns, and took part in the promotion of the Thirlmere and Vyrnwy schemes, as also in 1877 and 1878 in the water supplies of Stockton and Middlesbrough.
When beginning life Dr. Pole’s first inclinations were rather in the direction of literature than of engineering, and in order to aid him in his studies he acquired, when quite young,a good knowledge of French, to which he afterwards added German. Then, on his return from India, came Italian, which was followed by Spanish. At school his mathematical training did not go beyond arithmetic; but, in later life, he read for himself the higher mathematics, and, as already mentioned, was one of the first to apply them to practical purposes. Besides his manifold engineering occupations he found time to devote a good deal of attention to literature, and wrote for the Times, the Quarterly Review, the Fortnightly Review, and the Philosophical Magazine; indeed, while in India he conducted a newspaper, taking charge of one of the Bombay journals during the absence of the editor in England.
He took an important part in writing the life of Robert Stephenson, Past-President, which was published by Messrs. Longmans in 1864, and he also assisted in preparing the biography of I. E. Brunel, which appeared in 1870. At the request of the family, he next wrote the life of Sir William Fairbairn, Bart., which was published in 1877, and was so popular that an abridged edition was shortly afterwards called for.
In 1883 he wrote the obituary notice of Sir William Siemens for the Proceedings of the Institution, and this was followed by his writing Sir William’s life, which was published in October, 1888.
He also wrote for the Institution the obituary notices of M. de Lesseps, Sir R. M. Stephenson, Sir Thomas Bouch, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and Mr. Charles Manby.
His first Paper printed by the Institution in the Proceedings appeared in 1843 and dealt with the 'Comparative loss by friction in beam and direct-action engines,' and this was quickly followed by one on the 'Pressure and density of steam.'
On his return from India in 1847, he presented another Paper on the same subject. He described the Rigi Railway, and the ventilation of the Mont Cenis Tunne1, and in 1881 and 1884 he attacked the problem of Aerial Navigation, while in February, 1885, at the request of the Council, he gave one of a special set of lectures on Hydro-mechanics, taking Water Supply as his topic.
In 1891 he contributed an interesting Paper on the gift of mental calculation possessed by his friend Mr. Bidder, Past- President, and in his last Paper, published in 1896, he reverted to Aeronautics, dealing with the development of that science as shown at the Chicago Exhibition.
Besides the Papers which he wrote on the above subjects he constantly addressed the meetings on matters brought forward in the Papers of other members, and was for many years a very regular attendant at the Institution, in which he always took great interest.
In 1873, having been thirty-three years a member of the Institution, he was elected to the Council, on which he served for twelve years, till, in 1885, he succeeded Mr. Charles Manby as Honorary Secretary. That position he held till November, 1896, when, 'on account of his eminent and varied attainments, and the important services he had rendered to the Institution for many years as a Member of the Council and latterly as Honorary Secretary,' he attained the distinction, very exceptional for one who has passed through the usual grades of the Institution, of being placed on the list of Honorary Members.
The Library of the Institution contains books from his pen on 'Memoranda on the Comet of 1841-5,' 'Familiar Essay on the Errors of Time-keepers,' 1846, 'Musical Instruments in the Exhibition of 1851,' 'The Motion of Fluids in Pipes,' 1852, 'Diamonds, with a Note on the Imperial State Crown,' 1861, 'Iron as a Material of Construction,' 1872, 'Manufacture and Use of Gas,' 1873, 'Notes on the Early History of the Railway Gauge,' 1875.
From his childhood Dr. Pole was attracted to music, a study in which his mathematical knowledge stood him in good stead. At the age of seventeen he became organist of a Wesleyan Chapel in Birmingham, and, when he came to London in 1836, the appointment of Organist at St. Mark’s Church, North Audley Street, was vacant. There were about fifty applicants, seventeen of whom were selected to play in competition; of these two were selected by the judges, who left the authorities (the Vestry of the Parish of St. George’s, Hanover Square) to decide between them. These were Mr. Edward John Hopkins, afterwards Dr. Hopkins, Organist of the Temple, and the subject of this memoir, who obtained the position. Both these candidates died in the last year of the century, sixty-four years after the competition.
In 1860, he took the degree of Bachelor of Music at Oxford, which was followed in 1867 by his obtaining the Oxford degree of Mus. Doc., and from that time he was generally known as Dr. Pole.
In 1860, at the request of the Astronomer Royal, he examined, and reported on, the tuning of the great bells at Westminster, and he was Secretary for the Jury on Musical Instruments at the Exhibition of 1862.
In 1867, he lectured at the London Institution on the construction of the pianoforte. At the Royal Institution in 1877, Dr. Pole gave a course of lectures on the Theory of Music, afterwards published in 1879, in a volume called 'The Philosophy of Music,' based on the acoustical views and discoveries of Helmholtz. This led to Dr. Pole’s being requested by the University of London to draw up the regulations to be complied with by candidates for their degrees in Music, which were accordingly prepared. Dr. Pole became one of the first examiners for these degrees in 1878, and continued to hold that position till 1891.
In 1879 he produced a book on the history of Mozart’s Requiem.
In 1881 he was offered the Professorship of Acoustics at the Royal Academy of Music, which, however, he was obliged to decline.
In the following year the University of Cambridge appointed him to be one of their board, which, in case of a vacancy of a Professor of Music, had to make the election to that office.
In 1889, he became a Vice-President of the Royal College of Organists.
Throughout his life he was always in touch with the most distinguished musicians; when he met Wagner at dinner in London in 1877, and was asked by the master if his Mus. Doc. was an honorary degree, he was able to reply that he had to write for it a vocal fugue in eight real parts, with full orchestral accompaniments, upon which Wagner clasped him by the hand and claimed him as a 'brother.'
Dr. Pole was elected a member of the Athenaeum Club under Rule 2, which provides for the election by the Committee 'of a certain number of persons of distinguished eminence in Science, Literature or the Arts, or for public services. . . . .' It will be seen from the words of this rule that the members elected thereunder are chosen from a wide field ; their number is limited to nine annually, and to be included among them is in itself a recognition of high intellectual attainment. That Dr. Pole was among those thus honoured so long ago as 1864 was due, not only to the distinguished position as an Engineer which he had attained, but to the musical gifts which he had cultivated with such success.
So early in the history of photography as the year 1853 Dr. Pole acquired a knowledge of that art, which he afterwards found useful in his foreign travels, and the article on the subject published in Mr. Francis Galton’s well-known handbook of 'Notes for Travellers' was written by Dr. Pole.
His attention was also occupied with Astronomy, and in 1860 he joined the Government expedition sent to the North of Spain to observe the total eclipse of the sun on the 18th July in that year. The result of his observations was published at the time in Macmillan’s Magazine.
Although of high standing as an Engineer, and of distinction in the science of music, he was perhaps even more widely known to the general community as a great authority on the subject of whist, in which, as in music, his mathematical ability and insight, and his full acquaintance with the theory of probabilities, largely aided him. His first introduction to the game was by accident about the year 1860, when he was engaged at Sittingbourne in Kent on professional work with some of his pupils. One of the party writes that they were all, more or less, novices, but that Dr. Pole would often point out mistakes which he thought had been made, at the same time explaining his reasons.
At the end of 1861 he made a chance reference to whist in an article written for Macmillan’s Magazine, and this led to the late Mr. Henry Jones, well known as 'Cavendish,' writing to him, the result being co-operation between them. In 1864 Dr. Pole brought out his first book on this topic, called 'The Theory of Whist,' which has gone through more than twenty editions in England. besides those in America. It was intended to explain to the general public the scientific principles of the game, and to increase interest in it.
Finding large scope for the application of the mathematical theory of probabilities, Dr. Pole wrote for the Field many articles on the game from this aspect, and in 1883 he brought those together in another book called 'The Philosophy of Whist,' which was again followed in 1895 by a third and larger book entitled, 'The Evolution of Whist.' It may be said of Dr. Pole that he even preceded 'Cavendish' as a pioneer in the principles of whist as in practice for the last forty years, and as an authority he is as fully and widely recognised in the United States as in this country.
Enough has perhaps been said to describe the wide range of Dr. Pole’s studies and knowledge, as also the leading position which he occupied in each and all of them. A man of the highest principle, caring nothing for the amassing of money as such, of strong character, doing always what he believed to be right without flinching, he was perhaps in earlier years, with his time so much occupied as it was, not very easy of access, nor prone to brook contradiction, but, as often happens with such natures, the lapse of time brought softening influences.
He died at the ripe age of 86 on the 30th December, 1900, leaving behind him the name of an upright man, a sincere and warm-hearted friend to those whom he honoured with his friendship.
On hearing of his death the following resolution was passed by the Council of the Institution, and concurred in by the members on January 8th, 1901 :-
'That the Council deeply regret the death of Dr. Pole, F.R.S., Honorary Member, who devoted his life to the advancement of science, and more than sixty years to the service of this Institution, whose interests he served successively as Member of Council, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Member, and in all capacities earned the warm personal esteem of every member of Council and of the Institution, who desire to convey to his family an expressian of sympathy in their bereavement.'
In juxtaposition to this official recognition of his career may be placed his own modest words at the end of a short autobiography printed for private circulation:-
'My work has been earnest and I hope on the whole creditable and useful. I have had no ambition for special distinction. In everything I have done I have been only one of the working multitude, and the modest objects of my exertions have been reasonably attained.'
Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement
POLE, WILLIAM (1814–1900), engineer, musician, and authority on whist, fourth son of Thomas Pole of Birmingham, was born there on 22 April 1814, and educated at a private school at Birmingham kept by a Mr. Guy.
In 1829 he was apprenticed for six years to Charles H. Capper, an engineer in practice at Birmingham. On the expiry of his apprenticeship he removed to London, and obtained temporary employment as a draughtsman by Messrs. Cottam and Hallen, and then as manager of an engineering factory belonging to Thomas Graves Barlow.
On 7 April 1840 he was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and in 1843 he was awarded a Telford medal for a paper on the laws of friction, read on 7 Feb. He was elected a full member on 12 Feb. 1856, served on the council from 1871 to 1885, and was honorary secretary from 1885 to 1896, when he was elected honorary member.
In 1844 he published his book on the 'Cornish Pumping Engine,' and in the same year he was appointed by the East India Company first professor of engineering at Elphinstone College, Bombay.
In 1845 he did some surveying for what afterwards became the Great Indian Peninsula railway, but in 1847 ill health compelled him to return to England, and in 1848 he became business manager to James Simpson, hydraulic engineer at Westminster. Under Simpson he assisted at the establishment of the Lambeth Water Company's works at Thames Ditton, and with David Thomson he patented an improved pumping engine (Proc. Inst. Meek. Engineers, July 1862).
In 1850 he was engaged by Robert Stephenson [q. v.] to work out the calculations for his Britannia bridge over the Menai Straits, and in 1852 he was awarded a silver medal by the Society of Arts for his mathematical calculations on the action of the crank in the steam engine.
In 1852 Pole became assistant to James Meadows Rendel [q. v.]; he accompanied Rendel to Italy in 1853 to report to the Italian government on the harbours at Genoa and Spezzia, and Pole personally explained his reports to Cavour.
In the following year he went with Rendel to Hamburg to attend the international conference on methods for improving the navigation of the Elbe, and in 1855 again with Rendel he surveyed the coast of the German Ocean on behalf of the Prussian government, with a view to selecting the best harbour.
In October of the same year M. de Lesseps consulted him on the proposed Suez canal, but Pole's chief work under Rendel was in connection with railways, and during these years he took out several patents for improved methods of railway construction, e. g. a patent for railway wheels, 11 Jan. 1856, and one for fish-joints of railways, 10 Nov. 1860 (Index of Patentees, 1850-60).
After Rendel's death Pole was appointed in January 1857 assistant to Sir John Fowler [q. v. Suppl.], whom he accompanied to Algeria to survey for the proposed French railways in that colony.
In 1858 he became a consulting engineer on his own account at 3 Storey's Gate, Westminster, and from that time until his death he was constantly employed on government work.
In 1861 he was a member of Sir John Dalrymple Hay's committee appointed to investigate the application of iron armour to war ships and land fortifications; he took a large part in drawing up the committee's report issued in five volumes, and in 1876 wrote a reply to hostile criticisms which was issued as a parliamentary paper.
In 1865 he was secretary of the royal commission appointed to investigate the principles of railway legislation in Great Britain and Ireland, and in 1867 he was secretary to the royal commission on the London water supply; its report, issued in 1869, was mainly Pole's work.
From 1870 until his death he was one of the metropolitan gas referees, and in June 1882 he was placed on the royal commission to inquire into the condition of the Thames and disposal of sewage.
In 1884-5 he was secretary of the departmental committee on the South Kensington Museum.
In 1871 he was appointed consulting railway engineer in England to the Japanese government, and in 1883 received the Japanese order of the Rising Sun.
In 1880 he was assisted in the government inquiry into the Tay Bridge disaster, and he was frequently consulted by large provincial municipalities such as Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, on questions connected with their water supply.
In addition to his practical work Pole was for many years actively employed as a lecturer and writer on engineering and other scientific topics. From 1859 to 1867 he was professor of civil engineering at University College, Gower Street, in 1865 he delivered six lectures before the royal school of naval architecture and marine engineering, and he occasionally gave lectures to the royal engineer students at Chatham. He contributed numerous papers to the 'Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers,' many of which were also issued separately. For a paper on the mountain railway up the Rigi he was awarded a Telford premium in 1873. He contributed several chapters to Jeaffreson's 'Life of Robert Stephenson' (1864), one to the 'Life of I. K. Brunei' (1870), completed Sir William Fairbairn's 'Life' (1877), and wrote a 'Life of Sir W. Siemens' (1888). He also wrote on 'Colour Blindness' in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1859, and as early as 1844 had published a translation of Gessert's ' Art of Painting on Glass.' He was much interested in photography and in astronomy. He accompanied the astronomical expedition to Spain in July 1860, and published an account of it in 'Macmillan's Magazine' for that year.
But the subjects in which Pole became almost as eminent as in engineering were music and whist. When only seventeen years of age he had been appointed organist to a Wesleyan chapel at Birmingham; this he soon exchanged for the post of organist at a congregational chapel in the same town, and on his removal to London he was in December 1836 elected organist of St. Mark's, North Audley Street, London. He graduated Mus. Bac. at Oxford on 13 June I860, and Mus. Doc. on 17 Dec. 1867. In 1875 his report on the music at the Crystal Palace determined the directors to continue the concerts, and from 1878 to 1891 he was examiner for musical degrees in London University.
In 1877 he gave a course of lectures at the Royal Institution on the theory of music, afterwards published as 'The Philosophy of Music' (1877; 2nd edit. 1887; 4th edit. 1895). In 1879 he published 'The Story of Mozart's Requiem,' and in 1881 he declined the offer of the professorship of acoustics at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1889 he was elected a vice-president of the Royal College of Organists. He contributed several articles to Grove's 'Dictionary of Music,' and published in 1872 a setting of 'Three Songs' (London, fol.), and in 1879 'The Hundredth Psalm; motett for eight voices.'
As an exponent of whist Pole ranks with 'Cavendish' [see Jones, Henry, Suppl.] and James Clay [q. v.] He was a constant habitue of the card-room at the Athenæum, but his play is said not to have been so successful as his books on the game. His first contribution to whist literature was his 'Essay on the Theory of the Modern Scientific Game,' issued as an appendix to the sixteenth edition of 'Short Whist ... by Major A.' (1865). In this form it passed through two editions; it was separately published in 1870, and since then has gone through more than twenty editions. In 1883 he brought out his 'Philosophy of Whist' (6th edit. 1892); he also contributed the article on whist to Bohn's 'Handbook of Games'(1889), compiled some rhymed rules for whist players, which had a large circulation, and was a frequent contributor on the subject to periodical literature.
This variety of attainments brought Pole many honours; he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 6 June 1861, was placed on its council in 1863, and served as vice-president in 1875 and 1888. In 1864 he was elected a member of the Athenæum under rule two, and in 1877 he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1888 he represented both the Royal Society and the university of London at the eighth centenary of Bologna University.
He died at his residence, 9 Stanhope Place, on 30 Dec. 1900.
His wife Matilda, youngest daughter of Henry Gauntlett, rector of Olney, and sister of Pole's friend, John Henry Gauntlett [q. v.], predeceased him in October 1900, leaving issue several sons and daughters.
A portrait, reproduced from a lithograph published in 1877, is prefixed to Pole's privately printed autobiographical 'Notes (1898).
1901 Obituary [6]