H.C. Coombs

Herbert Cole Coombs
Coombs at the Lapstone Conference in 1948
Secretary of the Department of Post-War Reconstruction
In office 2 February 1943 – 31 December 1948
1st Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia
In office January 1960 – July 1968
Preceded by	none, initial officeholder
Succeeded by	J. G. Phillips
Personal details
Born	24 February 1906 Kalamunda, Western Australia, Australia
Died	29 October 1997(1997-10-29) (aged 91) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Alma mater	University of Western Australia (BA (Hons); MA) London School of Economics (PhD)
Profession	Economist

Herbert Cole "Nugget" Coombs (24 February 1906 – 29 October 1997) was an Australian economist and public servant.

Coombs was born in Kalamunda, Western Australia, Australia, one of six children of a country railway stationmaster 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 he was studying at the London School of Economics, he became converted to the economic views of John Maynard Keynes. He spent the rest of his career pursuing Keynesian solutions to Australia's economic problems. He never sought public office nor joined a political party, but he sought to exercise political influence 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), then the only free only university in Australia. 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. That was deferred for a year, enabling him to graduate M.A., also from UWA, and to 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 PhD for a thesis on central banking.