In A Man of Trust, Ronald Legge covers the life and times of C.M.S. Coates, a practising accountant for more than 65 years. His early life in the North East, being articled in Liverpool, serving in both World Wars, his Masonic life, pets, sports and making of mustard are all covered in this eclectic biography.
Born in Sunderland on 5 June 1891, Joseph Michael Smith Coates or J.M.S. as he was known to members of the profession, employees and those who he knew him outside of work, was with Price Waterhouse for 70 year, But as his son Michael says in the preface to this biography, "The firm is rarely at the centre stage of this account, nor is it intended to be, but its presence is never far away. PW made up so much of my father's life as indeed it has of mine." Michael himself would become a senior partner of the UK firm, and later chairman of the global firm.
On occasional visits to his home he recounted happy times spent with friends in Liverpool - the family of Norman Lockett, and other named Tempest. Though his own family never met these companions of his youth, the ties were close , and Norman Lockett became Joseph's closest 'buddy' in the trenches during the war that so soon followed their first becoming acquainted. Norman was killed on the battlefront, and Joseph perpetuated his memory by bestowing his name on his first born calling him Geoffrey Norman Coates
From our research, we assume Coates is talking about Archibald Norman Lockett and Oswald Aidan Tempest, both whom were articled clerks with G.E. Holt & Co in Liverpool, at the same time as Coates. However Lockett did not die during the war, he died on the Wirral in September 1921. Tempest did die in France in 1918. All 3 men feature on our page about the Liverpool war memorials.
On his return from the war and after passing his final exam, Coates sought a position with Holt & Co, but they felt no obligation to the returning soldier. He then went back to the North East were he was employed by Monkhouse, Goddard & Co where he felt he was "paid like a navvy."
"His commencing salary being £312 a year. However his services rapidly became appreciated and in short time his earnings had almost trebled to £900." (page 28)
In 1920 Monkhouse Goddard was taken over by Price Waterhouse and 4 years later Coates became a junior partner in the Newcastle firm.
Both of Coates's sons became articled clerks to Price Waterhouse in Newcastle just prior to World War 2, in which they both served They were encouraged by their father "in anticipation of a repetition of the practice that prevailed after Word War 1, when those who had been articled before military service were exempted from the intermediate examination of the Institute of Charted Accountants" (p136/7).
Although Coates officially retired from Price Waterhouse in 1959, he continued to work in the Newcastle office every day until three days before his death in 1984, aged 92.
His official retirement from P.W. in 1959 affected his business life really very little for his professional skills as a director, trustee and family adviser continued to be sought by many of his friends and colleagues. In 1979 he entered the records of his own profession by achieving his diamond jubilee as a practising accountant...
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