Harold Warnock Cottee

Harold Warnock Cottee was an Australian businessman and philanthropist who was instrumental in making the food and drink company Cottee's Ltd one of the most successful companies in Australia at the time. The company was sold in 1966 for the highest price ever paid at that time for an Australian company.

Early life Cottee was born in Lismore, New South Wales in 1898. He was one of 11 children born to Spencer Milton Cottee and Eliza Ellen Cottee (née Dorrough), who were staunch Methodists.

Business career Cottee's father, Spencer Milton Cottee, developed the drink Passiona on which the business was based. In 1924, Harold Cottee gave up the study of law to marry an English nurse, Lois Spencer, who persuaded him to move to Sydney and try to make a success of the company registered by him and his father in 1927. With three children, the couple sought to make a success of the company and, when funds became low, they returned to Lismore to finance their return to Sydney. In February 1928, with no further capital from shareholders, sales people were sacked and the company minutes noted that "the wisest course for the directors and secretaries is to resign and for the company to stand in abeyance".

While his father moved on to other ventures, Cottee persevered and the drink became the basis of a successful business.

Cottee supported the Wesley Mission for years and helped finance Alan Walker's "Mission to the Nation", In 1980, Dalmars Children's Homes opened a teenage refuge in Ashfield, Sydney, called "The Harold W. And Lois Cottee Lodge" in recognition of Cottee and his wife.

Honours On 12 June 1971, Cottee received an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to industry and the community, and was scheduled to be knighted when he died in 1973.

Death Cottee was survived by his wife Lois and seven children: Jean Lois, Harold Spencer, Kenneth James, Rosemary, Pauline, Carole and Dianne.