Researching Peter Coleman

He was the founding chairman of the territory's Republican Party, serving from 1985 to 1988. He is the only person in American Samoa history to have served as both appointed and elected Governor. During his first administration in the 1960s, Coleman chaired the convention that drafted the Constitution of American Samoa, and his administration laid the foundation for the American Samoa Fono legislature. His administration also produced the official seal and flag of American Samoa.

Coleman’s career spanned over the entire second half of the 20th century. He was a recipient of the 1997 American Samoan Governor’s Humanitarian Award and gained the chiefly title Uifa’atali from his home village of Pago Pago. During his first term in office, a constitution, containing the bill of rights and providing protection for Samoans against alienation of their lands and loss of their culture, was approved in 1960, and an American Samoa flag was adopted.

In 1951, he was the first person of Samoan ancestry to receive a law degree from an American university or from any university. The Peter Tali Coleman Lecture on Pacific Public Policy has been a part of the Pacific Islands Project at Georgetown University, where Coleman received his degree. In 1978, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Chaminade University of Honolulu and in 1970 from the University of Guam.

Coleman was educated at the Haileybury and Imperial Service College and King's College London before becoming its chaplain until 1966. He married Princess Elisabeth-Donata Reuss of Köstritz (Donata; born 8 June 1932) in 1960. They had two sons and two daughters. Following this he was vicar of St Paul's Clifton, then Director of Ordinands in the Diocese of Bristol and finally (before his ordination to the episcopate) Archdeacon of Worcester. In retirement he ministered in the Diocese of Bath and Wells as an assistant bishop until his death.

He spent some time in the Chelsea youth set-up in the early sixties but when he did not make the grade there, his youth team manager Dickie Foss encouraged him the sign for Croydon Amateurs then in the Surrey Senior League. The club won the Spartan League title in 1963-64 - their only season in the competition and moved up to the Athenian League Second Division. Peter played but a single game in that competition for the club before moving back to Scotland where he carried on playing and did well in the Scottish League.