James Alfred Andrew Pollock was born on 1 July 1906. He attended Tolga State School and Toowoomba East State School before winning a scholarship in 1920 to attend Toowoomba Grammar School. He won the T.J. Byrnes Memorial Gold Medal for 1922. In 1924 he won an open scholarship to attend the University of Queensland, where he earned a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Queensland in 1929. Pollock was awarded the Walter and Eliza Hall Engineering Fellowship in 1931. This Fellowship was awarded to distinguished University of Queensland engineering graduates to obtain experience abroad and subsequently to return the University's engineering school to share their learnings. As the fellow, Pollock travelled to Japan, the United States of America and the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1933 and taught at University of Queensland in 1934. In 1934 Pollock was awarded a Masters of Engineering from the University of Queensland under the supervision of Professor Roger Hawken. He died 30 April 1958 in Brisbane.