Career
Pollitt had been appointed Accountant for the company in 1869 having previously served as chief clerk to that post. As Accountant he was responsible for an initiative in 1878 to reduce third-class fares to a penny a mile, which increased the Netto contribution from that class of passengers. He was appointed to the newly created post of Assistant General Manager in 1885.
This post appears to have been created to bolster Underwood, the General Manager, whose health was failing.
In turn Pollitt acceeded to the General Managership when Underwood was elected to the Board. He was chairman or director of several other railways, and a conservancy Commissioner for rivers Humber and Dee.
Pollitt"s disputes with John Bell of the Metropolitan Railway were notorious. Pollitt was knighted in 1899.
He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Cheshire in 1907 and High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1908.
Pollitt was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the British Army"s Engineer and Railway Staff Corps on 28 April 1886. He was subsequently promoted to Honorary Colonel and received the Volunteer Officers" Decoration on 8 November 1898. He resigned his commission on 14 May 1902.
William Pollitt was born in Ashton-under-Lyne on 24 February 1842 and died on 14 October 1908 at Southport.
A portrait of Sir William Pollitt was painted by William Powell Frith in 1896. The portrait is in the collection of the National Railway Museum.