BC missionary in
China. He was a son of the manse, born at
Camelford on 20 April 1864. He was appointed to the newly opened Yunnan Mission in 1886. A superb linguist with great personal charm, he was an ardent evangelist and fearless in his denunciation of social evil. In 1891 he married
Emmie Hainge, a missionary with the China Inland Mission. He received the first Miao enquirers in 1904 and guided the development of the great movement that followed. Mastering their language, he devised an ingenious script for it, undertook the translation of the NT and published a hymn-book. Constantly travelling and preaching, he never spared himself. He died of typhoid on 16 September 1915 and was buried on the hillside behind Shimenkan (Stonegateway), the mission station he had founded. His grave was destroyed by the Red Guards, but rebuilt by the Chinese Government in 1995 as a lasting tribute to the work of the missionaries. His three books on China were republished in 1995 as
The Sam Pollard Omnibus. A commemorative plaque was unveiled on his birthplace in 2015.
- William John Michell, Brief Biographical Sketches of Bible Christian Ministers and Laymen (1906), vol.2 pp.86- 91
- W.A. Grist, Samuel Pollard, pioneer missionary in China (1920)
- R. Elliott Kendall, Beyond the Clouds, the story of Samuel Pollard of South-West China (1948)
- R.Eelliott Kendall, Eyes of the Earth: the diary of Samuel Pollard (1954)
- A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain, vol.4, 'Documents and Source Material' (1988), pp.618-22
- G.R. Senior, Samuel Pollard (Emsworth, 1999)
- Oxford DNB
