Austin Coates

Austin Francis Harrison Coates was a British civil servant and writer. Coates was a RAF Intelligence officer in World War II, and his service in Burma, India, Singapore and Malaysia was his first time in the Far East. In 1949, he joined the Colonial Service and occupied civil positions in Hong Kong and Malaysia before retiring in 1962 to become a full-time writer. Coates wrote prolifically on Oriental studies and travel, especially on Hong Kong and Macau. His best-known book is Myself a Mandarin (1968), a memoir about his tenure in Hong Kong. In the Philippines, Coates is best known for Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr (1968), which is still considered one of the best biographies of the de facto national hero.