Coates was born in Mount Pleasant, a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria in 1895 in Australia. Aged 11 years, he left school and went to work as a butcher and an apprentice bookbinder.
Born in Mount Pleasant, a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria in 1895 in Australia, Coates was 11 years old when he quit school and began working as a butcher and an apprentice bookbinder.