British military officer and Member of Parliament. Son of the Reverend Chidley Coote and Jane Evans. Married (1763) to Susannah, a daughter of Charles Hutchinson, the Governor of St. Helena, but died without issue.
In the early 1740s, Coote entered the 27th Regiment of Foot. He first saw active service during the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, later obtaining a Captaincy in the first regular British regiment to serve in India, the 39th. He stayed in India until 1762, rising through the ranks to Lieutenant-General and Commander of the British East India Company's forces in the Bengal.
In 1768, he was elected M.P. for Leicester, before transfering to Poole in 1774. He returned to India in 1779, assuming command of the company forces there. He relinquished command in 1782, but, shortly before his death in Madras in 1783, was persuaded to return to his command due to increasing French harassment, and ruptures between the governor and new commander in chief.
Boswell and Dr Johnson met Coote at Fort George near Inverness while on their tour of Scotland in late august 1773. In the afternoon, they had dinner with Sir Eyre and several officers. Boswell described Eyre as having "something between the Duke of Queensberry and my late worthy friend Captain Cuninghame in his manner," and as being "a most gentlemanlike man". Boswell wrote that Eyre "had come from the East Indies by land, through the deserts of Arabia," and that he told the assembled company about the Arabs' ability to live for days without victuals, praising their virtue.
As Boswell and Johnson left the fort in the early evening, Sir Eyre went downstairs and saw them into their chaise. According to Boswell, "[t]here could not be greater attention paid to any visitors".
The life of Sir Eyre Coote is presented in much detail in Colonel H. C. Willy's 1922 biography of Coote, A Life of Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, K. B., published by Oxford's Clarendon Press. It is an impressive and large volume with more than 500 pages and several illustrations. First editions are sometimes available via the AbeBooks used books search engine; otherwise it is available as a free PDF scan on archive.org.