World's 'last coachmaker' dies before delivering final work to king

Jim Frecklington OAM, considered the world's last royal coachmaker, is being remembered as a visionary craftsman whose work will endure for generations to come.

The 76-year-old died in an aged care facility in Manly on Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Mr Frecklington, an avowed monarchist and history lover, leaves behind three horsedrawn carriages built for the British royal family.

His latest project, the Commonwealth Royal Coach for King Charles III, remains unfinished, though his team is in the process of adding the final touches.

"I'll have what I'd call in, vehicle terms, it 'buttoned up', or about 98 per cent finished by the end of the week," vehicle body painter and friend Owen Webb said.

"I would have loved to have had it done so he could see it.

"I think he would have [died knowing it] was in good hands and we'd get it finished for him."

Weighing more than 3 tonnes and funded by remortgaging Mr Frecklington's home, the Commonwealth Royal Coach commemorates more than 1,000 years of British monarchy.

It is covered in hand-applied gold leaf, includes timber from Westminster Abbey, and is equipped with electric windows and air conditioning.

"This coach will become a national treasure of Britain," Mr Frecklington told the ABC during a visit to his workshop in December 2024.

Despite receiving a terminal diagnosis during the decade-long build, Mr Frecklington remained hopeful he could personally deliver the finished coach.

Mr Webb, a Moss Vale local involved in all three of Mr Frecklington's carriage projects, said his friend left a "pretty big legacy".

"The coaches have been used when parliament opens and during coronations," he said.

"He was a great man who built great things."

Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (ACM), said "the realm is considerably better upholstered" thanks to Mr Frecklington.

"It falls to remarkably few tradesmen to shape the pageantry of an entire monarchy, fewer still to do it twice, across two reigns, from a shed on Sydney's northern beaches," ACM wrote online.

"Jim Frecklington managed it with a craftsman's patience and, from everything one hears, a very Australian refusal to be impressed with himself about it."

Farm kid to royal horse rides

Born in Parkes, New South Wales, Mr Frecklington developed his passion for coachmaking when he was eight and his Shetland pony refused to be ridden.

"He resolved this challenge by building a cart and coaxing the pony into towing a small trailer," Warringah councillor and lifelong friend Darren Jones said.

After graduating from The Scots College in Sydney in 1968, Mr Frecklington moved to the Arctic to operate heavy equipment used to the build airstrips.

Four years later he moved to England and worked at Windsor Castle, caring for the Duke of Edinburgh's four-in-hand team of horses.

He later moved to the Royal Mews in London to care for Queen Elizabeth II's ceremonial horses.

"Jim used to go riding with the Queen, which is quite a privilege in itself,"

Mr Jones said.

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.

He went on to build the Australian State Coach as an official Australian Bicentennial gift to Queen Elizabeth II in 1988, and the Diamond Jubilee State Coach for the Queen's 80th birthday in 2006.

The Diamond Jubilee State Coach was used for the coronation of King Charles III because the Commonwealth State Coach was not ready.

"He is regarded as the last coachmaker in the world. And the irony of all that is that he didn't have any plans drawn. He had it all in his head and he had the ability to be able to transpose that to different tradesmen," Mr Jones said.

"But I think that's one of the hallmarks that Jim leaves behind — he had a degree of excellence and expected nothing less."