John Coates (general)

Lieutenant General Henry John Coates AC, MBE (born 28 December 1932) is a former senior officer in the Australian Army who served as Chief of the General Staff (1990–1992). Since retiring from the Army he has become an author and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy branch of the University of New South Wales (UNSW@ADFA) pursuing aspects of Australia's military history.

Military career
Educated at Ipswich Grammar School in Queensland, Coates graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1955 into the Royal Australian Armoured Corps. He secured a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia in 1962, before completing Honours at the Australian National University in 1965.

He was posted to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment and, as a major, was deployed to Vietnam for which he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1971. He secured an Master of Arts from the Australian National University in 1975. He subsequently became Commanding Officer of his Regiment.

He became Commandant of the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1983, moving on to be Head of the Defence Staff in Washington, D.C. in 1984; he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1987 in recognition of his service there.

He was made Assistant Chief Defence Force (Policy) in 1987 and appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1990; he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 1992 in recognition of his service to the Australian Army, particularly in that role.

Retirement
In retirement he has written a number of books about the Australian Army and Australian military history more generally. These include:
 * Suppressing insurgency: an analysis of the Malayan Emergency, 1948–1954 (1992)
 * Review of the Ready Reserve scheme (co-authored with Hugh Smith, 1995)
 * Bravery above blunder: the 9th Division at Finschhafen, Sattelberg and Sio (1999)
 * The Australian centenary history of defence, co-editor (2001)
 * An atlas of Australia's wars volume 7 of The Australian centenary history of defence (OUP, Melbourne, 2001)
 * An atlas of Australia's wars, 2nd edition 2006.

He is also a Visiting Fellow in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Australian Defence Force Academy campus of the University of New South Wales (UNSW@ADFA).