Antony Read

General Sir John Antony Jervis Read GCB, CBE, DSO, MC (10 September 1913 – 22 September 2000) was a senior British Army officer who became Quartermaster-General to the Forces.

Military career
Educated at Winchester College and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Read was commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1934. He was seconded to the Gold Coast Regiment, part of the Royal West African Frontier Force, in 1936. He saw active service in the Second World War and was awarded the Military Cross during the campaign against the Italians in East Africa in 1941. He became Commanding Officer of the Reconnaissance Regiment of 81st (West Africa) Division in 1943. In 1944 he took command of 1 Gambia Regiment which was deployed to the Arakan in Burma: he was awarded the DSO for his service in Burma in March 1945.

Read became Deputy Assistant Military Secretary at the War Office in 1947 and a Company Commander at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1949. He served as Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General at 11 Armoured Division from 1953. Read became Commanding Officer of the 1st Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry at Osnabrück in 1955. The Regiment then deployed to Cyprus for a tour between 1956 and 1959.

In 1957 Read was promoted to Brigadier and commanded 3rd Infantry Brigade in Cyprus. In 1959 he was appointed Commandant of the School of Infantry at Warminster and in 1962 he became General Officer Commanding Northumbrian Area and the 50th (Northumbrian) Division of the Territorial Army. In 1964 he was appointed Vice-Quartermaster General at the Ministry of Defence and in 1966 he became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command. Read was appointed Quartermaster General in 1969 and Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1973.

He was Colonel Commandant of the Light Division from 1968 to 1973.

He was also ADC General to the Queen from 1971 to 1973.

Read was awarded the CB in 1965, the KCB in 1967 and the GCB in 1972. He was also awarded the OBE in 1957 and the CBE in 1959.

Retirement
Read was Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea from 1975 to 1981. He lived in Caversfield, near Bicester in Oxfordshire.

He married Sheila Morris in 1947 with whom he was to have three daughters.

General Sir Antony Read GCB, CBE, DSO, MC died on 22 September 2000.