Jimmy Coats

As one of the leading bobsledders of the day, Jimmy Coats was a regular on the Cresta Run in the 1930s and 40s, and won a host of major trophies, including the coveted Grand National five times, in 1931, 1933-35 and 1937. He also won the prestigious Morgan Cup the first year it was presented, 1935, and again in 1937. When he finished a creditable seventh in the skeleton at the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics, Coats was just a couple of months short of his 54th birthday. He was a former president of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club (1954-56), and in 1956, at the age of 61, won the Cresta Seniors’ Cup.

Coats was a member of the famous 19th century family business of Scottish weavers, J. & P. Coats, based in Paisley. Educated at Downside boarding school in Somerset, before going to Magdalen College, Oxford, Coates served in the Coldstream Guards during World War I, eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Military Cross in 1918. During World War II, Coats headed the “Coats Mission”, set up to act as a personal bodyguard to the Royal Family, and upon invasion, their responsibility was to move the Royals to one of four secret destinations. The Mission was disbanded in 1943, and Coats then served in north-west Europe,

Upon the death of his father Stuart, in 1959, Coats became the 3rd Baronet Coats of Auchendrane. In addition to being a fine bobsledder, Coats was also a fine skier, golfer and tennis player. He was a distant relative of 1908 Olympian sailor Thomas Glen-Coats, as Jimmy’s great-grandfather’s brother was the father of Glen-Coats.