H. C. Coombs - Early Years

Early Years

Coombs was born in Kalamunda, Western Australia, Australia, one of six children of a country railway station-master and a well-read mother.

Coombs's political and economic views were formed by the Great Depression, which hit Australia in 1929 and caused a complete economic collapse in a country totally dependent on commodity exports for its prosperity. As a student in Perth he was a socialist, but while studying at the London School of Economics he became converted to the economic views of John Maynard Keynes, and he spent the rest of his career pursuing Keynesian solutions to Australia's economic problems. He never sought public office or joined a political party, but sought to exercise political influence from within as an administrator and advisor.

He won a scholarship to Perth Modern School, where Bob Hawke was also educated. After five years there he worked as a pupil-teacher for a year before spending two years at the Teachers' College. He then spent two years teaching at country schools, during which he studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in the University of Western Australia (UWA), the only university in Australia that did not charge fees at the time. Transferring to a metropolitan school for the final two years, he graduated B.A. with first-class honours in economics and won a Hackett Studentship for overseas study. This was deferred for a year enabling him to graduate M.A., also from UWA, and marry fellow teacher, Mary Alice ('Lallie') Ross at the end of 1931. As a student at UWA, Coombs was elected as the 1930 Sports Council President and subsequently the 1931 President of the Guild of Undergraduates. He then proceeded to the London School of Economics, where he studied under Harold Laski, one of the most influential Marxists of the 20th century. In 1933 he was awarded a Ph.D. for a thesis on central banking.

In 1934 he returned to a teaching position in Perth and combined this with part-time lecturing in economics at UWA.