Cole, Walter Leonard (1866–1943), businessman and politician, was born 15 May 1866 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, younger son among four children of George Cole (d. 18 December 1902), director of the North West Railway Co., and Arabella Cole (née Hughes) of Wales. Educated at St Francis Xavier's College, Liverpool, he matriculated (June 1882) at the University of London, where he took a diploma in Portuguese.
A member of the Irish National League (1888), he was honorary secretary of the Liverpool Irish Literary Institute (1890). Coming to Dublin, he established himself (1890) as a fruit wholesaler, and later an auctioneer, in the Dublin markets. Friendly with Arthur Griffith (qv) and William Rooney (qv), he became a member of the Gaelic League (1894) and helped found the Celtic Literary Society (1899). As a director of Daily Sinn Féin he owed the bank between £1,500 and £2,000 arising out of the debts of An Claidheamh Soluis in June 1904. He was also a member of the National Council, an ad hoc propaganda group; the decision to establish a formal political party was forced on Cole and Griffith by Bulmer Hobson (qv) among others. A member of the Sinn Féin executive (1905–12), he was honorary secretary 1905–8, 1910, 1917. Considered to be particularly moderate in his views, he was elected an alderman of Dublin corporation in 1904 (Inns Quay ward), and reelected in 1905 (Drumcondra ward) in Sinn Féin's first electoral outing.
Arrested for having his name written in Irish on his fruit carts c.1905, he was interned for a month from mid June 1916 in Frongoch south camp, though as a pacifist he had taken no part in the Easter rising. In Frongoch he was on the education sub-committee of the ‘general council of the Irish Republic’; he was then transferred to Reading jail till his release (24 December 1916). Appointed the national director of forestry (August 1919) and of National Arbor Day (29 November 1919) by the first dáil, he chose to contribute to the funds of the dáil by refusing to take a salary. Cole estimated that between 250,000 and 300,000 trees were planted as a result of the National Arbor Day campaign.
A member of the dáil committee on industrial resources, he was a member of the council of the Dublin Industrial Development Association, served on the electric lighting and improvements committee, and was vice-chairman of the technical education committee. Joint honorary organiser of the fruit-growing campaign, he was involved in the All-Ireland fruit exhibitions and congresses in Cork and Dublin. In his house at 3 Mountjoy Square, Dublin, he sheltered Sinn Féin leaders on the run and hosted sessions of the dáil after its suppression on 10 September 1919. In all he was arrested six times during the Anglo–Irish war, and the Black and Tans shot his brother Vincent, to whom he bore a close resemblance. He was elected under the coalition pact in June 1922 to represent Cavan in the dáil, but seldom spoke and was unsuccessful as a Cumann na nGaedheal candidate in 1923. In 1925 he unsuccessfully stood for election to the seanad as advocate for a protectionist policy. A regular contributor to many Irish publications on politics, economics, and afforestation, he was president of the 32 Club in 1935. A friend of Michael Noyek (qv), he sheltered Jewish refugees from Germany on their way to the USA during the 1930s. A man of refined tastes, he was an amateur painter and a collector of antique furniture. He died 26 April 1943 at his home, leaving an estate worth £1,478.
He married first (April 1894) Anna Priscilla (d. 20 February 1921), daughter of William and Ellen Harrison of Grand Rapids, USA. They had three sons. On 31 January 1928 he married Mary (‘Moira’) Josephine, daughter of Rudolph Redden, compositor at Hely's Printers, and Alice Redden (née Kavanagh). They had two daughters.
More information on this entry is available at the National Database of Irish-language biographies (Ainm.ie).