Augustus Cole was one of a group of Black Anglican clergy ordained by Archbishop Nuttall in the later 19^th century; others in this group were the Revs C. L. Barnes and C. C. Douce, while the Revs R. Taylor and T. Banbury had been ordained earlier. So far no pictures or photographs of these others have come to hand.

Augustus Cole was born in Kingston in 1851. As a young man he trained in foundry work, starting out at the West End Foundry of the extraordinary Charles P Lazarus.  While he worked in various foundries he continued to study, especially Theology. From 1875 he worked as a teacher and catechist of the Anglican Church, serving in St Catherine, St Ann and Portland. In 1886 he entered the Theological College and was ordained deacon in 1888; he was ordained priest in 1890. In subsequent years he served in various churches, chiefly in St Thomas and Portland, finally being appointed by Archbishop Nuttall to St David’s, Yallahs, in 1897.

In 1899 he resigned from the Diocese and went on a tour of the United States during which he preached in many of the biggest Churches there, and filled temporary appointments in several States. He was called to the Port Limon Episcopal Church in Costa Rica, but declined the position so as to be able to return to the Yallahs Cure, which he was offered again. He worked and raised up the Church from the ruins, justifying the words of  the Archbishop: “There was hardly another man besides Mr. Cole that I could send there to build up the Church, and how well he materialised my hope.”

The Rev. Augustus Cole was known as one of the best preachers of the Anglican Church in Jamaica, and his efforts were not confined to the service of the Church alone. He did much to develop the agricultural resources of the district and also worked in the cause of education. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1921. Declining health forced him to resigned from St David’s in that same year after twenty years of service as an Anglican priest. He had married in 1878 and had five children, two daughters and three sons.