Jim Frecklington, the world’s last coach maker, dies aged 76

Jim Frecklington MVO OAM, the world’s last coach maker, dies aged 76 after a lifetime of passion for creating some of the royal family’s most iconic carriages.

Australia and the Commonwealth are remembering the legacy of Jim Frecklington, who created some of the British royal family’s most iconic state carriages. Whether it was a State Opening of Parliament or, more recently, state visits through Windsor, you have likely seen Frecklington’s work carrying royals to many ceremonies broadcast on television over the years. As a fervent monarchist, his passion brought him to Buckingham Palace, where he met with the late Queen Elizabeth II. Though he has gone, his legacy and one final carriage will keep his passion alive for centuries.

After caring for the late Duke of Edinburgh’s horses at Windsor, he was assigned to the Buckingham Palace Royal Mews, where he looked after carriages. Frecklington’s relationship with the Royal Family grew over the decades, and he was even known to ride with the late Queen. ABC Australia notes, “In 1977 Mr Frecklington was invited to manage Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee Exhibition during its Australian tour and made a replica of Edward VII’s 1902 State Landau coach.”

Australian State Coach Photo: John Pannell – Flickr: DSC_1364, CC BY 2.0

In 1988, as Australia celebrated its bicentennial, Jim Frecklington made his first carriage for the royal family. Constructed over two years and named after the Australian State Coach, it weighs over 2,75 tonnes and is made entirely of Australian materials, except for the Waterford crystal on the lamps and the brocaded upholstery provided by the Royal Household. Australia presented the coach as an official gift to the late Queen. It also has a special connection to the Wales family. The carriage was used in 2011 at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine to transport the then-Prince of Wales and then-Duchess of Cornwall, along with Catherine’s parents, to Buckingham Palace after the couple’s nuptials. The Wales family — William, Catherine, George, Charlotte, and Louis — used the coach during the 2023 Coronation Procession.

Jim Frecklington then undertook another meaningful creation. The late Queen would be celebrating her 80th birthday in 2006. Frecklington began making a new coach to celebrate the late Queen’s birthday, but it took much longer than expected. It then became a Diamond Jubilee gift as Her Majesty’s 60th year on the throne approached in 2012. The Diamond Jubilee State Coach — first used in 2014 — weighs over three tonnes and is considered a “travelling museum.” The iconic coach features panelling from some of Britain’s most historic ships, cathedrals and buildings. After its creation, the RCT acquired it for the nation.

The coach transported King Charles III and Queen Camilla to Westminster Abbey on their Coronation Day in 2023.

According to the Royal Collection Trust, the interior wooden panels of the Diamond State Coach are made from objects donated by over 100 historic sites and organisations across Britain. The seat handrails are from the Royal Yacht Britannia, and the window frames and interior panels include samples of wood, metals and other materials from:

• Balmoral Castle
• Blenheim Palace
• Caernarfon Castle
• Canterbury Cathedral
• Chatsworth House
• Edinburgh Castle
• Hampton Court Palace
• Kensington Palace
• Osborne House
• Stirling Castle
• St Paul’s Cathedral
• The Mary Rose (Henry VIII’s flagship)
• The Palace of Holyroodhouse
• The Palace of Westminster
• The Royal Pavilion, Brighton
• The White House at Kew
• Tower of London
• Westminster Abbey
• Windsor Castle
• 10 Downing Street
• The Antarctic bases of Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Frecklington was also unique in the way he almost freehanded his work. With no plans, he relied on experience and passion to craft coaches millions would see. Queen Elizabeth II appointed Frecklington a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 2014; he earlier received the Order of Australia at the 1991 Australia Day Awards for his services to carriage building.

His final creation remains unfinished. Jim Frecklington was nearing completion on the ‘Commonwealth State Coach’ “to honour the reign of King Charles III”, as he described it. The unfinished coach will pay tribute to over a thousand years of history with steel from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House along with bronze flowers representing the national flowers of the 56 Commonwealth countries. Despite terminal cancer and rounds of chemotherapy, Frecklington worked to encapsulate history into his masterpieces. “This coach will become a national treasure of Britain,” Mr Frecklington told the ABC.

With the help of his team, the Commonwealth Coach will be finished and delivered personally to King Charles III. Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.

There was something profoundly Australian about Jim Frecklington. A country boy from central-western New South Wales went to Buckingham Palace, mastered an almost extinct European craft, returned home and demonstrated that an Australian could not merely reproduce the finest traditions of royal coachbuilding but advance them. He combined the confidence of the Australian bushman with the standards of the old-world master craftsman. — The Spectator 

Following his death last week, the Australian Governor-General paid tribute to Frecklington, describing him as an “extraordinary craftsman whose work forged a lasting link between Australia and the Crown.”