Peter Coles

Peter Coles was born in Carlisle on the 4th of January 1935 and first moved to the Calder Valley in 1948, when his father Thomas William Coles became vicar of St. Mary’s Luddendenfoot.

He attended Sowerby Bridge Grammar School where he met his wife Enid. He read Chemistry, Theology and Education at Leeds University. He taught Chemistry in two Bradford Grammar Schools and was a Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University teaching teachers of Chemistry. From there he went into Local Government in the South-East of England.

In 1986, he gave up his post as Chief Education Adviser for Berkshire and moved back to his roots in the Calder Valley to concentrate on his photography and writing. Over forty of his books and a few thousands of his pictures are now published and he has himself, through Sephton Enterprises, published a number of works by other authors.

He has had several one-man exhibitions of his photographic montages but he is probably better known for his Audio-Visual works; he was National AV Champion in 1991 with “Jill is Still” and again in 2003 with “Sarah” which he co-produced with Sheilah Peel who lives in Westport in the Irish Republic. He has now achieved well over a hundred-and-fifty major International awards including having twice won the European Cup for Diaporama, once with his friend Colin Balls with “Motorway” and once on his own with “Kingdom Come”.

He achieved his Fellowship of The Royal Photographic Society with Pictorial Prints in 1986 and also a Fellowship in AV in the same year.

Until 2007 he edited, produced and published a quarterly magazine AV WORLD, the only generally available publication in the English language devoted exclusively to Audiovisual work. This was established by Peter and his two AV friends Colin Balls and Ron Davies when the RPS decided that AV News (which Peter then edited) could not be available to non members. The Royal Photographic Society has recently recinded their ban on non-members purchasing AV News and so there is now no need to publish two similar magazines.

Peter was Awarded the Fenton Medal by the RPS in 2008 for services to Photography

Peter and Enid have three children:

Mark is a radio reporter and presenter with the BBC World Service,

Richard, amongst other things, teaches English in Madrid and sells rubbish (sorry, antiques)

and Belinda helps to manage a World-wide employment agency.

Currently they have six grandchildren, Ally, Emma and Joe in Reading; Pablo and Hanna in Madrid; and Hari James Sephton Coles was born to Mark and Leala on 27th July 2007 in London. Number seven is on "its" way.

Peter represents Luddendenfoot Ward on Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council.