Glady Coates - A woman ahead of her time

While researching the Coates brothers from the Remuera memorial in Auckland I stumbled across their sister Gladys Coates. 

Gladys was a woman ahead of her times with a strong sense of independence she seem to let nothing stand in her way.  She learnt to drive after marrying car salesman William Henning in June 1912 at Mount Eden, Auckland.  At the outbreak of WW1 she was determined to follow her two brothers and husband to the Middle East by offering her services to the authorities as a driver however, her services were rejected.  Not to be deterred Gladys raised money and paid for her own passage and sailed to Eqypt where she joined the Volunteer Sisterhood and worked as a driver operating from the Ghaza Hospital.

 Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 280, 24 November 1915

From the Middle East she went on to England where she was taken on by the Motor Transport Section of the N.Z.E.F. in May 1917.  She rose to the lofty position of Head Lady Driver driving ambulances at Hornchurch, Walton on Thames and Brockenhurst hospitals.    In January 1919 she was discharged after she contracted influenza and in 1920 she was awarded the M.B.E.  On a sadder note her husband William Henning died of wounds in 1918 after being awarded the the Military Cross.  

Gladys also holds the honour of being the first women to become a full member of the New Zealand Returned Services Association (RSA).

 Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XII, Issue 3, July 1919

In  April 1920 she remarried Frederick Sandford in Sydney, Australia.  Frederick had been a Squadron Leader in the Royal Air Force but sadly the marriage ended in divorce in 1928.  In December 1925 against fierce opposition she became the first woman in New Zealand to gain a pilot's license, despite gaining her pilot's license she pursued a career as a motorist and her many pursuits were reported by the press.

"ROUND AUSTRALIA" CONTEST"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 82, 8 April 1937, Page 19

 

 

To find out more about her career follow the link below

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160202b.htm

Gladys Coates - A woman ahead of her time

While researching the Coates brothers from the Remuera memorial in Auckland I stumbled across their sister Gladys Coates. 

Gladys was a woman ahead of her times with a strong sense of independence she seem to let nothing stand in her way.  She learnt to drive after marrying car salesman William Henning in June 1912 at Mount Eden, Auckland.  At the outbreak of WW1 she was determined to follow her two brothers and husband to the Middle East by offering her services to the authorities as a driver however, her services were rejected.  Not to be deterred Gladys raised money and paid for her own passage and sailed to Eqypt where she joined the Volunteer Sisterhood and worked as a driver operating from the Ghaza Hospital.  

 Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 280, 24 November 1915

From the Middle East she went on to England where she was taken on by the Motor Transport Section of the N.Z.E.F. in May 1917.  She rose to the lofty position of Head Lady Driver driving ambulances at Hornchurch, Walton on Thames and Brockenhurst hospitals.    In January 1919 she was discharged after she contracted influenza and in 1920 she was awarded the M.B.E.  On a sadder note her husband William Henning died of wounds in 1918 after being awarded the the Military Cross.  

Gladys also holds the honour of being the first women to become a full member of the New Zealand Returned Services Association (RSA). 

 Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XII, Issue 3, July 1919

In  April 1920 she remarried Frederick Sandford in Sydney, Australia.  Frederick had been a Squadron Leader in the Royal Air Force but sadly the marriage ended in divorce in 1928.  In December 1925 against fierce opposition she became the first woman in New Zealand to gain a pilot's license, despite gaining her pilot's license she pursued a career as a motorist and her many pursuits were reported by the press.

"ROUND AUSTRALIA" CONTEST"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 82, 8 April 1937, Page 19

 

 

To find out more about her career follow the link below

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160202b.htm

The Coates Brothers - Remuera, Auckland Memorial

Randolph E. O. C. Coates and Eric A. Coates were the only two sons of Oswald and Valerie Coates who also had three daughters.  Both brothers had been born in Australia and had come to New Zealand at an early age in 1896 both boys were educated at Wanganui College.  On the 16 October 1914 they simultaneously embarked from New Zealand with the Main Body, Eric from Wellington and Randolph from Auckland.   I imagine this would have been a proud yet sad day for their family.

Both served at Gallipoli where Randolph was sent back to Egypt when he contracted influenza whilst embarking for Egypt he was injured by shrapnel.  Later his name appeared in dispatches mentioning his 'devotion to duty'.  He was also offered a commission in an English Regiment but turned it down preferring to stay with his fellow New Zealanders and shortly after he was offered a commission with the NZ Infantry.  He also passed the examinations for the Royal Flying Corp but was refused the transfer.  He ended up on the Western Front where he died of wounds received on the first day of the Flanders Campaign at the Battle of Messines on the 7th June 1917.j

Eric never left the Middle East serving at Gallipoli, Sinai and then Palestine.  Despite surviving Eric died in New Zealand from Pneumonia on the 14 November 1918 only 3 days after the Armistice he was buried at Purewa Cemetery in Auckland and on his headstone his brother Randolph is remembered with him.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14639, 18 February 1918, Page 4 paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

For Oswald and Valerie Coates it would have been small comfort to visit Purewa Cemetery in Auckland a place they could visit and remember their sons.  So many New Zealand families were never able to visited their sons final resting place far away on the other side of the world.   Memorials erected after the war became surrogate graves taking the place of an individual headstone.  The memorial was a place for those left behind to remember a loved one lost.