South Yorkshire Times, December 2nd 1944
Goldthorpe Pilot’s D.F.C.
Former Colliery Fitter
A Goldthorpe airman who has completed 40 operational flights as the pilot of a Stirling bomber, has been awarded the D.F.C. He is Acting Flt. Lieut. Ronald Coates, younger son of Mr. and the late Mrs. Joseph Coates of 57, Welfare View.
Flt. Lieut. Coates joined the R.A.F. as a fitter in 1938, being formerly a fitter at Barnburgh Main Colliery, but in 1942 volunteered and was sent to America for training as a pilot. He won his “wings” and the rank of Flt. Sergeant at a Florida airfield the same year, returning to this country in April.
Subsequently he was commissioned and after almost a year of operational flying has risen to his present rank. Flt. Lieut. Coates is 23 and married, his wife, who is a native of Surrey, being employed at a London factory. A scholar at Highgate Council School, he attended classes at Bolton Evening Institute up to joining the R.A.F.