Albert Coates (surgeon)

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Sir Albert Coates (1895-1977) was an Australian surgeon and soldier. He served as a medical orderly in World War I, and as a senior surgeon for the Australian Army Medical Corps in World War II. He was captured by the Japanese and during his time as a POW, worked as a surgeon for the many Allied POWs working to build a Burma-Thailand Railway. In between the wars, Coates studied surgery and helped to establish the Neurosurgical Society of Australia. He returned to surgical work following World War Two and was made a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was knighted in 1955.