Minute book Coles and Garrard Pty Ltd
 Catalogue Number: 3202 Minute book Coles and Garrard Pty Ltd Category: Papers Sub-Category: Minutes, meeting papers Corporation: Coles and Garrard Pty Ltd Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1948 to 1953 Time Period: 1940 to 1999 Place Of Publication/Manufacture: Melbourne Description Of Item: Ledger, 210 x 330 mm, bound with dark green cloth with leather spine and corners, with makers label inside the front cover (Lion Brand Books, Great Britain) containing minutes of meetings variously of shareholders and directors of Coles and Garrard Pty Ltd in the period from August 12 1948 to 8th July 1953. The first two minutes are hand-written directly on the pages of the ledger and thereafter are typewritten and pasted to the ledger pages. Pasted in on the first page of the ledger is the legally drafted notice of an extraordinary general meeting of Coles and Garrard Limited for the 13 August 1948 proposing special resolutions to do with the allocation of shares and the following page has a pasted in record of the special resolutions that were passed. Historical Significance: Coles and Garrard Pty Ltd was the largest optometry firm in Melbourne until it was sold to OPSM in 1988 and ceased trading under its name a few years afterwards. It was established in March 1922 by H. Earl Coles and F. J. Garrard and located at 370 to 372 Bourke Street. They had worked together at Alfred Nott opticians at 372 Bourke St, Melbourne. (See Table Talk Mar 1923). In 1936 it employed 15 optometrists. From the 1940s it established branches in country towns and at the Chadstone Shopping Centre in 1960 In or about 1948 Coles offered ownership equity to his employees. These minutes mostly related to the initial allocation of shares and subsequent transfer of shares to other parties. There were 20 persons allocated shares at a meeting on October 7 1948 including 658 shares to each of H. E, Coles and the chairman of the Board H Wansley. The 18 former employees were allocated 1315 shares each and a further 685 shares each at a later meeting on October 27 1948 How Acquired: Donated by Laurie Hicks, Melbourne optometrist Date Acquired: Jan 2017 Condition: Good Location: Archive office. East wall shelves unit 3 |