Rebecca Seear
The Coachmans Daughter
The Coachmans Daughter
I grew up on Windsor’s carriages. My father drove them here for more than 50 years, and his passion for the horses, the trade and this remarkable place became mine.
My role has been to find a way for this Victorian trade to have a place in modern Windsor. Today, that responsibility is shared with the coachmen and families who work alongside us, carrying the trade forward. As The Coachman’s Daughter, I bring its inherited stories and working knowledge into each visit, welcoming guests, interpreting the places we pass and making the connection between Windsor’s history and the living tradition before them.
In this short film, I share a little of that story, and what it means to be its custodian today. In the photo above I am the child sitting at the rear of the coach facing the camera. My father is driving, my mother seated next to him, with my grandfather, centre.
A Childhood in Windsor
I grew up on a working equestrian livery yard, surrounded by horses and carriages from childhood.
Sundays meant dressing for service at The Royal Chapel and practising curtsies for Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It was a life where royalty, tradition and everyday work existed side by side.
My father, John Seear, was a Windsor coachman for over fifty years. My mother, Tissie Reason, organised equestrian events on the estate and ran the livery yard where we lived. My grandfather, Frank Seear, and my father’s mentor, George Paget, carried forward the knowledge and discipline of carriage driving traditions that pre-date the motor car. Pictured in the white dress front right next to my father and younger sister .
One Summer Changed Everything
After building an international career in digital content management, including work launching Amazon Prime Video, I returned to Windsor in 2013 to help my dad with his then-elderly horses, initially intending to stay for the summer.
When my father passed away in 2016, I found myself holding the reins in many ways. Over the next decade, I built a trusted team of distinguished commercial coachmen and equestrian families who shared the same standards and values as my father.
Year by year, we reshaped the model, evolving to survive. Reducing the horses’ working hours was not a compromise, but a conscious progression, allowing quality, context and welfare to sit at the centre of every experience.
Harnessing Success
Leadership Lessons From a Living Trade
Before returning to Windsor Carriages, I spent two decades in corporate leadership, including helping to launch Amazon Prime Video. Yet some of my most valuable leadership lessons came not from a boardroom, but from horses, coachmen and the responsibility of continuing a working trade.
Horses respond to clarity, consistency and trust. They notice uncertainty before it is spoken and remind us that leadership is not conferred by a title. The carriage trade also depends upon distinct roles, shared standards and confidence in every member of the team.
These principles inspired Harnessing Success, my leadership programme exploring trust, communication, responsibility and what it means to move forward together.
This is not a conventional corporate away day. It is an encounter with a living working practice and the leadership lessons it has carried across generations.
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