The economist Herbert Cole Coombs (1906-1997) was appointed to a series of public positions which allowed him more influence on the shape of post-war Australia than all except a few prime ministers. Widely respected by all sections of the Australian community, he was committed to government participation in economic reform and social betterment programs.

Herbert Cole Coombs, the oldest surviving child of a family of six, was born on February 24, 1906. He was known as "Nugget" all his life, after the gold mined in his native Western Australia, because of his small size but great and universal worth.

After a small town education he won scholarships to teachers college and university and then to London as a research student. London, in the grip of the depression years, had a life-long effect on him. He observed the effects on people of the squalor and social injustice caused by economic conditions...