1. Sir William Ford Coaker KBE was a Newfoundland union leader and politician and founder of the Fisherman's Protective Union, the Fishermen's Union Trading Co.
12 Facts About William Coaker
1. 2.
William Coaker was born in 1871 in St John's, Newfoundland, and educated at Bishop Feild College.
3.
William Coaker had political leanings from an early age and spent his school days attending House of Assembly debates.
4.
At fourteen William Coaker left school to work for the firm of McDougall and Templeton and two years later became manager of their branch store in Pike's Arm, Notre Dame Bay.
5.
William Coaker organized the first meeting of what would become the Fishermen's Protective Union in the Loyal Orange Lodge at Herring Neck, Newfoundland and Labrador in November 1908.
6.
William Coaker led the organization as it expanded into a multifaceted interest involved in trading, publishing, light and power, shipbuilding, shipping and cold storage.
7.
The original anthem of the Fishers Protective Union was titled "We are coming Mr William Coaker, and we're 40 thousand strong".
8.
The former high school on New World Island, William Coaker Academy, was named after William Coaker.
9.
William Coaker took the FPU into politics in 1912 and Coaker was elected to the Newfoundland House of Assembly in the 1913 general election where he remained until 1924.
10.
William Coaker served in cabinet during World War I and from 1919 until 1924 when he was minister of marine and fisheries.
11.
William Coaker married Jessie Leah Crosbie Cook, born 22 January 1871 of Southside, St John's, in 1901.
12.
Lady Jessie William Coaker died on January 9,1947, at the age of 76.