COLTMAN, Walter John (1860-1929), a partner in the Regina firm of Clemesha & Coltman, was born in West Hackney, London, England on 1 November 1860 and articled there to Alfred Watson of London as a building surveyor and engineer. He worked as an improver for four years, then practiced in England for eight years before moving to Canada in 1903. He appears to have had very little experience as an architect or designer while in England; in 1891 he was recorded in the partnership of Sherrin & Coltman, 'Auctioneers, Surveyors, Estate Agents and Valuers' in London, but this was dissolved on 31 March 1892. Coltman was later listed as a Fellow of the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors in London (Transactions of the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors [London], Session 1894-95, xxvii, 597). By 1898 he had formed a new partnership with Hugh M. Baker, as Coltman & Baker 'Auctioneers & Surveyors', but this too was shortlived, and later dissolved on 29 August 1898 (London Gazette, 30 Aug. 1898).
Coltman arrived in Canada in 1903 and signed up with the North West Mounted Police at Regina, and was posted to various locations in Alberta and Saskatchwan. Apparently unsatisfied with this profession, he bought out the last two years of his five year contract with the NWMP, and by 1906 he was active in Regina as a 'Consulting & Civil Engineer & Surveyor'. He was recorded as opening an office in Regina in 1907 (Morning Leader [Regina], 27 April 1907) and designed a major addtion to the Electric Light Power House, REGINA, SASK. (Morning Leader [Regina], 19 July 1907, 7; C.R., xviii, 7 Aug. 1907, 6). In 1908 he was in partnership with Alfred C. Coakley, an engineer, in the firm of Coltman & Coakley. They designed an apartment block for an unnamed client in MOOSE JAW, SASK. (C.R., xix, 25 March 1908, 20). From May 1911 he was in partnership with F.C. Clemesha (see list of works under Clemesha & Coltman). Their collaboration was brief, and by early 1912 Coltman had taken a new post as Inspector of Buildings with the Saskatchewan Dept. of Public Works, replacing the architect Ernest Brown, who left to open his own office. By 1913 Coltman had left the city. He later moved to California and died in the town of Angels Camp, Calaveras County, California on 19 May 1929 (inf. Ann Coltman, Austin, Texas; inf. Saskatchewan Assoc. of Architects; inf. Ross Herrington, Regina)