Arthur Coles

Who was Arthur Coles?

Sir Arthur William Coles was a prominent Australian businessman and philanthropist, a son of St James, Victoria shopkeeper George W. Coles.

With his brothers George James "G.J.", Kenneth Frank "K.F.", Edgar Barton "E.B.", and Norman Cameron "N.C." Coles, A. W. Coles founded Coles Variety Stores in the 1920s, which was to become Coles Group, one of the two largest supermarket chains in Australia.

He served as Lord Mayor of Melbourne from 1938 to 1940.

In 1940 he was elected to the federal parliament as an Independent from Henty. With Alexander Wilson, he held the balance of power, at first keeping the UAP-National government in office, but in 1941 switching sides to install a new Australian Labor Party government.

In 1946 Coles was appointed chair of the Australian National Airways Commission, which founded TAA or Trans Australian Airlines.