Harold Coates O.B.E.

  General Notes:

Carolyn Kingsmill notes that he was the Mayor of Lithgow and also an M.P.
Coates entered public office as an alderman on the Lithgow City Council 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 at the 1947 election as a Liberal candidate. Coates again contested Hartley in 1962 as an independent when he came close to defeating Labour member Jim Robson. In 1965 Coates ran as an independent again and won the election on Democratic Labor Party 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.
Coates was born to George Coates and Emily Ivy Coates (née Moore) in Hampton, NSW on 22 April 1917.
Coates attended 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.
Freemasonry
Coates was a Freemason, and served as the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of NSW & ACT for the period 1980-85.
Harold was President of the Lithgow Chamber of Commerce and member and President of the Lithgow Show Society. He was involved with the New South Wales Planning Authority and the Development Corporation of New South Wales. He was President of the Hartley District Boy Scout Association, a member of the Lithgow Technical College Council, a distinguished Rotarian and, I believe, a Paul Harris Fellow. He was an alderman on Lithgow council from 1945 up to the early 1980s. There was a short period when he was not on the council. He was mayor on a number of occasions from the late 1940s; his last term as mayor was 1976. Harold Coates performed long and distinguished community service. He will certainly be missed in the Lithgow community.

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. "Bakers, Bishops and Bushrangers" by Robert J Williams

Harold married Kathleen Winchester, daughter of John James Winchester and Daisy Jane Nicol, in May 1939. (Kathleen Winchester was born on 20 Aug 1916.)