Gilbert Coates MBE, savings bank executive; born May 20, 1918, died May 15, 1998
Gilbert Coates, who has died at the age of 79, was awarded the MBE for his services as Higher Executive Officer with the Savings Bank at Cowglen.
He will be remembered by his employers not only as a conscientious worker, but as a tireless fund-raiser, raising more than #50,000 for the bank's sports and social club.
He led a varied and interesting life. Born in Leeds, he joined the Durham Light Infantry from school as a band boy. Before the war, he saw service in China, and later served in Egypt, Syria, Italy, Malta, and the Greek Islands.
In Greece, he was captured by the German Army and spent 18 months in a prisoner of war camp at Moosburg, Germany.
There, he served his fellow prisoners by manufacturing a radio (which the Germans never found), making maps to inform the other prisoners how far the Allied forces had advanced, and - not least - by organising and participating in entertainments and concerts to keep up their spirits.
After the war, he found work as a telephone operator in Leeds, but he soon took his civil service exam and, having passed that, was posted to the Savings Bank office at Harrogate. It was on a train en route to Harrogate that he met Elizabeth, who was to become his wife.
He was later promoted to head office at Lytham St Anne's and, when that office transferred to Cowglen in 1966, he moved with it and came to live in Johnstone, where the family has lived since.
He was a stalwart member of the Methodist Church and, on moving to Scotland, joined Paisley Methodist Central Hall, where he used to sing in the choir, served for a time as social responsibility secretary, acted as a pastoral visitor, and was the church's auditor for many years.
He also used to carry the wreath at Remembrance Sunday services in honour of former servicemen such as himself. He is survived by his wife, three daughters, one son, and a grandson.
The Rev John Staton
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