John Reeve

After leaving school at the age of 15, John Reeve began his working career as a butcher, but his talents and ambitions would take him far beyond his beginnings. He moved to Australia and was soon called up to join the Royal Air Force as a cook. After his discharge, he held a variety of positions before travelling to the United States and being inspired to found a Hawaiian bar in Birmingham, called The Castaways, in 1966. When that business failed a few years later, he took up sailing and moved to Grenada, where he became involved in the tourism industry.

Following the turmoil caused by Grenada’s independence struggle, Reeve moved to the United States Virgin Islands in 1976, which he made his permanent home, and restarted his life in the tourism industry. In the 1980s he was convinced by his friend, John Foster, Sr., an Olympic sailor, to take up bobsledding, and the duo made it to the Olympics in 1988, placing 38th in the two-man event. Reeve was also entered into the giant slalom competition in alpine skiing, but did not start the event. A documentary on his life, titled “Bet on Yourself”, was released in 2019.