George Cole

George Cole may refer to:

Politicians

Sportsmen

Others

George William Cole

George William Cole (15 January 1823 – 4 December 1893) was a politician in the colony of South Australia.

History

He was born in Lindfield, Sussex the son of George Cole (2 May 1792 – 20 November 1853) and Jane Cole (c. 1787 – 3 April 1861); they arrived in South Australia on 9 July 1839 on the Lysander.

He was employed as City Valuator from around 1865.

He was, like his father, a confirmed teetotaler, active in the Bible Christian Missionary Society and the Total Abstinence Society and important in the founding of Rechabites in South Australia. He was a lay preacher for the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Adelaide.

He was a member of Parliament for the seats of Burra and Clare 1860–1862, with fellow teetotaler William Dale as his associate, and The Burra 1862–1866, when he resigned. He fought for abolition of liquor and closing of railways on Sundays. In the 1850s he lived next door to the Temperance Hall in Tynte Street, North Adelaide; later at Lymington Cottage, Melbourne Street, North Adelaide.

George Cole (artist)

George Cole (15 January 1810 – 7 September 1883) was an English painter, particularly known for his landscapes and animal paintings.

Cole was born in Portsmouth, to James and Elizabeth Cole. His mother died when he was 9 years old.

According to the artist's grandson, Rex Vicat Cole, he was apprenticed to a ship's painter in the Royal Navy dockyards at Portsmouth. He taught himself to paint pictures, at first portraits and animals; he also painted posters for Wombwell's menagerie.

In 1838 Cole's painting The Farm Yard was shown at the Society of British Artists. When he was 30 he changed his focus to landscapes and received instruction from John Wilson, known as "Old Jock", and started exhibiting in 1840. One anecdote has him painting the portrait of a Dutch merchant in Portsmouth. After the sitter refused to pay him, saying it was a bad likeness, Cole added wings and put the painting in a shop window with the title The Flying Dutchman. The man's friends recognised him and laughed; he paid for the painting, and Cole painted out the wings. Some sources refer to him as having studied in Holland, but there is no evidence to support this. His career has been regarded as a good example of the Victorian self-made man: in 1831 he married Eliza Vicat, of an old French Huguenot family. In 1852 he moved to Fulham and in 1855 to Kensington, where he lived for the rest of his life. In the mid-1860s he purchased Coombe Lodge, a small estate in Hampshire.

Leslie George Cole

Leslie George "Les" Vante Cole, known professionally by the stage names "Levant", "Levante", "The Great Levante" and Magician Cole (5 March 1892 – 20 January 1978), was an Australian illusionist. He is regarded as one of the greatest magicians in the world and "Australia's most famous magician". He is also credited with creating the Impaling illusion.

Early life

Leslie George Vante Cole was born 5 March 1892 in Alexandria, Sydney, Australia to Sydney-born couple George Cole, a driver and Sarah Catherine (née Chapman, later Reid.), a homemaker. His family later moved to Wangaratta, Victoria where the elder George Cole bred and sold pig's trotters and operated a dairy farm. Cole was educated within Wangaratta, having been raised there, and his first job was driving a baker's cart.

Career