9. Sir Albert Coates 2000 Bronze

Sir Albert Coates Memorial
Dr James (Jim) Pryor was President of the Albert Coates Memorial Trust and gave the address at the Albert Coates Dinner on Sat 14th May 2000 prior to unveiling statue on 15th May.
Jim remembered Sir Albert Coates in 1948-49 as a lecturer in surgery at Melbourne University and described him as a brilliant lecturer. He was also the Senior Surgeon at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Albert Coates was a medical orderly in World War 1 and at the outbreak of World War II he volunteered for the Australian Army and was posted to Singapore where he was in charge of a hospital. After the fall of Singapore he was captured in Sumatra and spent three years as a Japanese prisoner of war, ministering to the sick prisoners, as did Sir 'Weary' Dunlop.
Sir Albert Coates was a Ballarat boy who left school at 12 years of age and achieved against all the odds.