Pontefract architect, born on 14 April 1910 at Knottingley, near Pontefract, the son of Charles Ernest Austick Poulson, a Ferrybridge potter and WM local preacher. A strict upbriging left its marks on his personality, though not on his morals. He was educated atWoodhouse Grove School (where his practice subsequently designed an extension) and at the Leeds School of Art, where he failed to complete his course. Against his father's advice, he was articled in 1927 to Garside & Pennington of Castleford (G.F Pennington also being a Wesleyan). Excused from national service on health grounds, he built up his practice during the War, so that by the late 1950s it was the largest in the country, specializing in public buildings, hospitals, shopping centres and housing, although with arguably little of quality in design. His Methodist work included Central, Pontefract (1953), where he was a circuit steward and Westmoreland Terrace, Westminister (1962). He was chairman of the National Liberals prior to their demise.
His success was partly due to his early recognition of a multi-disciplinary approach in design, but also to the giving of financial backhanders to politicians, civil servants and local government officials. For one who was an Inland Revenue Commissioner, there was irony in the fact that failure to pay a tax bill led to his bankruptcy in 1972 and to a financial investigation that exposed his corruption, for which he was tried the following year and given a seven-year sentence, subsequently reduced for good behaviour. Methodists among the 21 others convicted of corruption included Alderman Colin Dews of Castleford. Leslie A.J. Heywood, a member at Eastbrook Hall, Bradford, was appointed Bradford City Architect with the responsibility of sorting out the department's affairs following criminal proceedings. At the time of his death on 31 January 1993 Poulson was an Anglican.