Leslie Robert "Les" Coates (9 June 1898 – 20 February 1976) was an Australian politician.

Born in Brighton

Brighton, Victoria

Brighton is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Bayside. At the 2006 Census, Brighton had a population of 20,651...

 to market gardener Robert Brooke Coates and Jane Annie Boxshall, he attended Moorabbin

Moorabbin, Victoria

Moorabbin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 15 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Kingston. At the 2006 Census, Moorabbin had a population of 5,170....

 State School and became a cigar maker. Around 1924 he married Hilda Grace Hedberg, with whom he had two children. He served on Moorabbin City Council

City of Moorabbin

The City of Moorabbin was a Local Government Area located about southeast of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1862 until 1994.-History:...

 from 1947 to 1974, including four periods as mayor (1949–50, 1953–54, 1961–62 and 1969–70). He was a delegate to the Trades Hall Council and in 1952 was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly

Victorian Legislative Assembly

The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...

 as the Labor

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member for Dandenong

Electoral district of Dandenong

The Electoral district of Dandenong is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It was first proclaimed in 1904 when the district of Dandenong and Berwick was abolished....

, serving until 1955, when he unsuccessfully attempted to transfer to Moorabbin

Electoral district of Moorabbin

Electoral district of Moorabbin was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria.-Members for Moorabbin:...

. He contested the federal seat of Higinbotham

Division of Higinbotham

The Division of Higinbotham was an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1949 and abolished in 1969, when it was renamed Hotham. It was named for George Higinbotham, a leading Victorian colonial politician and judge. It was located inthe south-eastern suburbs of...

 in 1955 and Moorabbin in 1958 and 1961, but was not able to re-enter parliament. After losing preselection for Moorabbin in 1964 he left the Labor Party, rejoining in 1972. Coates died in 1976 at Moorabbin and was buried at Cheltenham

Cheltenham, Victoria

Cheltenham is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located 19 km south-east of Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Kingston to the eastern side of the area's metropolitan railway line and Charman Road north, while the City of Bayside resides over...

.