Quick Facts
Biography
Ludovico Pollera (1870-1953) was an Italian governor of Eritrea.
Life
Pollera was born in Lucca on July 4, 1870. He was a member of a Tuscany family with aristocracy roots.
Ludovico Pollera was a colonial official like his brother Alberto, a famous ethnographist and writer. He arrived in Eritrea in 1895 and remained there until 1928. He participated in the battle of Adwa in March 1896. The next year he fought the Dervishi in Sudan.
In 1900 he left the military service and started to work as civilian for the Italian "Ministero Affari Esteri" (Foreign Policy Ministery).
Ludovico Pollera had a particularly brilliant career. He started as a "Commissioner resident" of Agordat and then was regional commissioner of some areas of Eritrea. In 1912 he accompanied an aggregated Zaptie Mehariste company of the V Battalion Ascari in war operations in Italian Libya. Subsequently he became the head of the "Civil and Political Affairs Department" in Eritrea (1918-1920).
From November 20, 1920 to April 13, 1921 he was Governor of the Colony of Eritrea and successively he remained "General Secretary" of Eritrea until 1928. He wrote only one book, a "Report" in 1913: Relazione Commissariato generale del Barca (1883-1892) for the "Camera dei Deputati" of Roma.
Ludovico Pollera returned from Africa in the mid-thirties of the last century to be elected -between 1938 and 1945- President of the Cassa di Lucca, a regional bank of his hometown.
He died rich and respected in Lucca on January 21, 1953.
