He was born in Ratnagiri in British India in 1851, the son of George and Letitia Coles.
[1][2] He went on to study at the Royal Indian Civil Engineering College at Cooper's Hill near Egham in Surrey.
[3] Coles made his debut for Kent in 1873 against Sussex at Lord's in the only match which took place in the "County Championship Cup", an experimental competition organised by MCC.
[3] On a pitch that Wisden reported as "dangerously bad", Coles took six wickets in the Sussex first innings and four in the second as he "repeatedly struck the batsmen" and "battered the batsmen into submission".
[1] This biographical article related to an English cricket person born in the 1850s is a stub.