Born the second son of Reginald Pole and Anne Pole (née Buller), Pole was educated at Plympton Grammar School before joining the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth in January 1770. He was appointed to the fifth-rate HMS "Thames" in 1772 and then transferred to the fourth-rate HMS "Salisbury" on the East Indies Station in December 1773. Promoted to lieutenant on 26 June 1777, he was assigned to the sixth-rate HMS "Seahorse" and then transferred to the fourth-rate HMS "Rippon" in 1778 and saw action at the siege of Pondicherry in India in October 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. He then became commanding officer of the sloop HMS "Cormorant" and was sent home with the despatches.