Oscar Pulvermacher was born to Isaac Pulvermacher and Augusta Fiedler.^{[citation needed]}

Oscar was born into comparative wealth, but on the death of his father, everything changed. His mother Augusta remarried, and her late husband's fortune passed to her second husband. Oscar, then just shy of 14 years old, was forced to leave school and earn his keep. He worked first as a delivery boy, and then found a small job as a messenger boy for the Daily Mail. He ascended the ranks year after year, until he became Editor (1929–1930) and earned himself a place on the Board of Directors.^{[citation needed]} Pulvermacher left the Mail eventually to work for The Daily Telegraph.^[1] He left London with his wife Marie Barnett Pulvermacher^{[citation needed]} and emigrated to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he died in 1958.^[1]