George M. Cole, born in Portsmouth, England on August 20, 1853, was the thirty-second Adjutant General of the State of Connecticut. He was the son of George and Jane A. Malpas. He moved to Massachusetts where his father was a civil engineer. Cole was educated in public and private schools. Cole was also tutor by his father, where he became an assistant to his father. Cole would later become associated with a wholesale and a grain business in New London.