He won the Wilson Bailey Medal as the league's best and fairest player in 1928 and represented Tasmania at the 1930 National Carnival.

He was an assistant teacher at West Devonport from 1938 until 1941, when he was called up to the Australian Army; he had previously been a member of the Citizen Military Forces.

Cole's first speech in the Senate outlined his opposition to communism, which he described as a "pernicious doctrine" based on the denial of God.

He allied himself with the anti-communist Groupers and formed the belief that the party's federal leader H. V. Evatt was a communist fellow traveller.

In October 1954, he moved for a leadership spill, believing that Arthur Calwell had sufficient numbers to win a challenge.

He unsuccessfully petitioned the Court of Disputed Returns to overturn the result, but Judge Alan Taylor upheld the election of Lacey.

[3] He remained the DLP's parliamentary leader until his term expired in June 1965,[4] and campaigned for the party in that capacity at the May 1965 New South Wales state election.