Family background
George Leslie Cohen was born on 9 August 1879 in Sydney, NSW, son of Benjamin Hyam Cohen and Sarah Davis. He married Ethel Ann Taylor (1883-1976) on 23 December 1911 in Sydney, NSW and they had two sons. George Leslie Cohen died on 22 March 1943 in Redfern, NSW, aged 63 years and was buried in the Anglican Section of Botany Cemetery. He had lived at 54 Walker Street, Waterloo.
Community activity
George Leslie Cohen was a justice of the peace (JP). As a Labor alderman, Cohen had strong links with the union movement, was socially conservative and anti-communist.
Local government service
George Leslie Cohen was an alderman on Waterloo Council in 1926-31 and 1938-40. As a result of accepting a bribe, three Waterloo Council aldermen were sacked in 1940: John Neilson, George Cohen and Ernest Navin. A by-election was held in May 1940. Richard B Chew, Harry V Currie and Patrick Kinchington were elected in their place.
References
‘Waterloo Council Election’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 December 1925, p. 12, http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16261044
The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 March 1940, p. 1, http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17652953
‘Three Waterloo Aldermen Sentenced to Gaol’, Truth, 3 March 1940, p. 19, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article169103449