Background
Coats was the son of Thomas Coats and Margaret Glen, daughter of Thomas Glen, of Thornhill Johnstone, Renfrewshire.
Coats was the son of Thomas Coats and Margaret Glen, daughter of Thomas Glen, of Thornhill Johnstone, Renfrewshire.
He was the younger brother of Sir Thomas Glen-Coats, 1st Baronet, and a first cousin of Sir James Coats, 1st Baronet. Coats was the owner of a cotton firm in Paisley. He acquired the Glen Tanar estate in Aberdeenshire in 1905.
In 1916 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Glentanar, of Glen Tanar in the County of Aberdeen.
Lord Glentanar married Margaret Lothian Black, daughter of James Tait Black, of Underscar, Keswick, Cumberland. Lady Glentanar died in July 1935.