Harold George Coates, OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (22 April 1917 – 9 April 2002) was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician, serving as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 during the period 1965-1976.

Political career

Coates entered public office as an alderman on the Lithgow City Council

City of Lithgow

Lithgow is a Local Government Area in New South Wales, Australia that includes Lithgow and its surrounding area. It is on the Great Western Highway and the Main Western railway line.- Demographics :According to the , there:...

 in 1945, where he served for almost forty years with only a short break. Coates was Mayor of Lithgow Mayor on three occasions - in 1947, from 1954 until 1957 and again in 1976.

Coates first contested the seat of Hartley

Electoral district of Hartley (New South Wales)

Hartley was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, originally created in 1859 in the Lithgow area and named after the town of Hartley, near Lithgow. It replaced part of Cook and Westmoreland. From 1891 to 1894, it elected two members...

 at the 1947 election as a Liberal

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 candidate. Coates again contested Hartley in 1962 as an independent when he came close to defeating Labor

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member Jim Robson

Jim Robson (politician)

James Hutchins "Jim" Robson was an Australian politician. He was the Labor member for Hartley in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1956 to 1965....

. In 1965 Coates ran as an independent again and won the election on Democratic Labor Party

Democratic Labor Party

The Democratic Labor Party is a political party in Australia that espouses social conservatism and opposes neo-liberalism. The first "DLP" Senator in decades, party vice-president John Madigan was elected to the Australian Senate with 2.3 percent of the primary vote in Victoria at the 2010 federal...

 preferences.

During the elections between 1962 and 1978, the Liberal Party didn't nominate a candidate against Coates. He was viewed as a conservative independent and generally supported the Liberal-National coalition.

Personal life

Coates was born to George Coates and Emily Ivy Coates (née Moore) in Hampton, New South Wales on 22 April 1917.

Coates attended school Lithgow High School and attended Lithgow Technical College. He was a builder by trade and went on to succeed his father in running the family business - G.Coates and Sons Pty Ltd, a hardware store and timber yard in Lithgow.

In 1939 Coates married Kathleen Winchester and they had four children.