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The Honourable
Reg Pollard
The Honourable Reg Pollard
Minister for Commerce and Agriculture
	In office; 1 November 1946 – 19 December 1949
Prime Minister	Ben Chifley
Preceded by	William Scully
Succeeded by	John McEwen
Member of the Australian Parliament; for Lalor
	In office; 10 December 1949 – 26 November 1966
Preceded by	New seat
Succeeded by	Mervyn Lee
Member of the Australian Parliament; for Ballaarat
	In office; 23 October 1937 – 10 December 1949
Preceded by	Archibald Fisken
Succeeded by	Alan Pittard
Personal details
Born	31 October 1894; Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia
Died	24 August 1981 (aged 86); Gisborne, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Spouse	Elsie Bowman Hodges
Occupation	Dairy farmer

Reginald Thomas Pollard (31 October 1894 – 24 August 1981) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in the Victorian Legislative Assembly (1924–1932) and House of Representatives (1937–1966). He was Minister for Commerce and Agriculture (1946–1949) in the Chifley government.^[1]

Early life

Pollard was born in Castlemaine, Victoria and educated at Woodend State School, West Melbourne Technical School and Workingmen's College. He worked as an agricultural labourer near Werribee and from 1912 to 1915 as a fitter in Melbourne. During World War I he served in the first Australian Imperial Force the 6th Battalion from October 1915 in Egypt and France and was promoted to Second Lieutenant. He was wounded in 1918 and invalidated home. He became a soldier settler in Woodend as a dairy farmer. He married Elsie Bowman Hodges in 1922 and they had two sons.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Pollard founded the Woodend branch of the Australian Labor Party. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Dalhousie in a 1924 by-election, and represented the seat of Bulla and Dalhousie from 1927 until his defeat in the 1932 election. He was assistant Minister of Agriculture from December 1929 to May 1932. He ran unsuccessfully for the federal seat of Gippsland at the 1934 election and the state seat of Castlemaine and Kyneton in 1935.^[2]

Pollard was elected to the Australian House of Representatives seat of Ballaarat at the 1937 election and held it until the 1949 election, when he was elected as the member for Lalor. He was appointed Minister for Commerce and Agriculture in the second Chifley Ministry in November 1946, but lost office with the defeat of the Chifley government at the 1949 election. As Minister, he introduced a scheme to stabilise the price of wheat paid to farmers.^[5] He was defeated in Lalor at the 1966 election. He died in Gisborne.^[2]

Parliament of Victoria
Preceded by Allan Cameron	Member for Dalhousie 1924–1927	Succeeded by Seat abolished
Preceded by New seat	Member for Bulla and Dalhousie 1927–1932	Succeeded by Harry White
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Archibald Fisken	Member for Ballaarat 1937–49	Succeeded by Alan Pittard
New division	Member for Lalor 1949–66	Succeeded by Mervyn Lee
Political offices
Preceded by William Scully	Minister for Commerce and Agriculture 1946–49	Succeeded by John McEwen