William Ford Coaker | |
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 | |
| Born | October 19, 1871 |
| Died | October 26, 1938 (aged 67) |
| Occupation(s) | union leader, businessman, politician |
| Known for | Founding the Fishermen's Protective Union and establishing Port Union. |
Sir William Ford Coaker KBE (October 19, 1871 – October 26, 1938) was a Newfoundland union leader and politician and founder of the Fisherman's Protective Union, the Fishermen's Union Trading Co., and the town of Port Union. A polarizing figure in Newfoundland politics and society, he was described as "the outstanding social reformer produced by Britain's Oldest Colony" by eventual Premier Joey Smallwood.[1]
Coaker is known for criticizing the truck system which dominated the fishery of Newfoundland in the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.
- ^ Smallwood, Joseph R. (1927). Coaker of Newfoundland: The Man who led the Deep-Sea Fishermen to Political Power. London: The Labour Publishing Company. p. 14.