John Read (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-General

Sir John Read

KCB OBE
Born
John Hugh Sherlock Read

6 September 1917
Died5 March 1987[1]
Taunton Deane, Somerset, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Branch
 British Army
Service years
1937–1975
Rank
Lieutenant-General
UnitRoyal Engineers
Conflicts
Second World War
AwardsKCB, OBE

Lieutenant-General Sir John Hugh Sherlock Read KCB OBE (6 September 1917 – 5 March 1987) was a senior British Army officer. He served as the Assistant Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the Director of Military Operations at the Ministry of Defence, the Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff. He was also Director of International Military Staff at NATO Headquarters. Read was knighted by the Queen on 1 January 1972.

Biography

Born on 6 September 1917, was the son of Group Captain John Victor Read and Elizabeth Hannah May (née Link) Read. He was educated at Bedford School, at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.[2]

Career

He gained his first commission in the British Army in 1937 when he became a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers.[2][3] During the Second World War, he served in France, Belgium, Egypt, Palestine, Greece and Austria. Between 1945 and 1957, he served in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Read was Assistant Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, between 1966 and 1968, and Director of Military Operations at the Ministry of Defence, between 1968 and 1970.[2] He was Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff at the Ministry of Defence, between 1970 and 1971,[2] and Director of International Military Staff at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, between 1971 and 1975.[4][2]

Lt. Gen. Sir John Read retired from the British Army in 1975.

Awards and honours

Read was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1944.[2][5] Read was made a Knight Commanders of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the Queen's New Year's Honours of 1972.[2][5]

Personal life and death

Read married Mary Monica Wulfhilde Curtis in 1941.[6] She predeceased him in 1985.[2] The couple had three children, two sons and a daughter.[2][1]

Read died in a car accident on 5 March 1987.[7][1] He was 69.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Announcements: Deaths: Read". The Daily Telegraph. London. p. 17. Retrieved 28 August 2026 – via newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Obituaries: Lt-Gen. Sir John Read". The Daily Telegraph. London, England. 9 March 1987. p. 20. Retrieved 28 August 2026 – via newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Royal Military Academy Commissions". The London Gazette. No. 34430. 1937. p. 5442. Gentlemen Cadets from the Royal Military Academy, to be 2nd Lts... CORPS OF ROYAL ENGINEERS.... John Hugh Sherlock READ.
  4. ↑ "Read, Lt-Gen. Sir John (Hugh Sherlock)". Who's Who.
  5. 1 2 "Appointments to the Order of the Bath". The London Gazette. No. 45554. 1 January 1972. p. 2. K.C.B. To be Ordinary Members of the Military Division of the Second Class, or Knights Commanders of the said Most Honourable Order:... Lieutenant-General John Hugh Sherlock READ, O.B.E. (73055) late Corps of Royal Engineers.
  6. ↑ "Bride Formerly of Harrogate". The Yorkshire Post. Leeds. 20 January 1942. p. 1. The marriage of Major John Hugh Sherlock Read... and Miss Mary Monica Wulfhilde Curtis, daughter of the late Mr. Henry Curtis, of Harrogate, and Mrs. Curtis... took place at St. James's Church, Spanish Place, London, yesterday.
  7. ↑ Obituary, The Ousel, Vol.XCI, No.926, June 1987, p. 60
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