Sir William Coates, 1st Baronet

Coates was born in Belfast in 1866. He studied at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.[1] He was the son of David Lindsay Coates and Sara (née Mulligan) Coates.[2]

He initially entered the linen trade, but became a stockbroker in 1887, building up an extensive business known as William F. Coates & Co, stockbrokers. In 1902 he was elected to Belfast Corporation. He was chairman of the finance committee from 1917 and was elected Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1920 and then re-elected twice, serving until 1923.

He hosted the King and Queen when they visited Belfast to open the Parliament of Northern Ireland (of which he was also a Senator, both ex officio as Lord Mayor and as an elected member 1924-1929[3]) in July 1921. For hosting the monarchs, and guiding Belfast past the sectarian conflict that marked the creation of Northern Ireland in the early 1920s, Coates was created a Baronet of Haypark.[4] He served as Lord Mayor again from 1929 to 1931.

He served as High Sheriff of Belfast (1906–1907) and as High Sheriff of Antrim (1931–1932).[5]

On 27 November 1907, Coates married Elsie Millicent Gregory, daughter of Colonel Frederick William Gregory. Together, they were the parents of:[2]

• Jean Ann Dorothy Coates, who married Thomas Roland Lecky Sinclair in 1938.[2]
• Sir Frederick Gregory Lindsay Coates, 2nd Baronet (1916–1994), who was a Brigadier in the Royal Tank Regiment. He married Joan Nugent Spinks, daughter of Major-General Sir Charlton Watson Spinks.[2]

Coates died on 19 January 1932 and was succeeded by his son Frederick.[6] Upon his son's death in 1994, Sir William's grandson, David Frederick Charlton Coates (b. 1948), became the 3rd Baronet.[2]