He was educated at Jersey High School and Victoria College before going to study law at the University of Caen.

However, although he passed the entrance examination for the Indian Civil Service, he was rejected on health grounds due to the discovery of a systolic heart murmur.

He was ineligible to join the Inns of Court regiment due to his previously discovered heart murmur.

Coutanche's explanation of "decent" co-existence between Jewish and Christian traditions and people in Jersey can, according to Sanders, be interpreted as disapproval of anti-Jewish policy.

[2] Coutanche refused to ratify the registration of the eighth order requiring the wearing of a yellow star as a "measure too far".

[4] He was made a life peer in the Birthday Honours of 1961 taking the title of Baron Coutanche, of St Brelade in the Island of Jersey and of the City of Westminster.

During the period when he was simultaneously a member of the legislatures of Jersey and the United Kingdom he sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords; upon his retirement as bailiff he took the Conservative whip.