William John (Jack) Read (born 18 September 1905, Hobart,

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, Australia; died 29 June 1992,

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. Within months of Vi ...

Victoria (Australia) Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

, was an Australian

Coastwatcher The Coastwatchers, also known as the Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau, were Allied military intelligence operatives stationed on remote Pacific islands during World War II ...

Bougainville Island Bougainville Island ( Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil'') is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is part of Papua New Guinea. It was previously the main landmass in the German Empire-associated North Solomons. Its land area ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by the United States for his service during World War II in the

Solomon Islands campaign The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, ...

and the New Guinea campaign. His experiences and reports have become an important source for historians regarding the history of the coastwatchers.

Early life

Read was born on 18 September 1905 in Hobart to William George Read and Eleanor Elfridine, (née Absolom). He attended Hobart State High School and after worked as a bookkeeper. In 1929, he married Gwenneth Ballantyne in 1929 before leaving for public service in the

Mandated Territory of New Guinea The Territory of New Guinea was an Australian-administered United Nations trust territory on the island of New Guinea from 1914 until 1975. In 1949, the Territory and the Territory of Papua were established in an administrative union by the nam ...

. He and Gwen had one child together, Judith. Read served his cadetship in New Britain; in 1932 he was promoted to patrol officer and stationed in

Madang Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century. Hist ...

. In 1936 he was promoted to assistant district officer and continued to serve in Madang, as well as Wau and

Lae Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...

in the

Morobe Province Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands P ...

World War II

Madang Province Madang is a province of Papua New Guinea. The province is on the northern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea and has many of the country's highest peaks, active volcanoes and its biggest mix of languages. The capital is the town of Madang. D ...

and its capital was first colonized by Germany in the late 19th century and German colonial rule lasted until the end of World War I. When World War II began in Europe, Australia began interning foreign nationals suspected of Axis sympathies. Read was involved in taking German and Italian miners into custody in preparation for their deportation and internment in Australia. He applied for release from colonial service to enter the military, but this was denied and he assigned to the

Buka Passage Buka Passage is a narrow strait that separates Buka Island from the northern part of Bougainville Island, within the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of northeastern Papua New Guinea. History A number of shipwrecks are located in the passage. ...

sub-district and sent to

where his duties included coastwatching. Read had risen to the rank of sergeant in the

Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit The Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) was a civil administration of Territory of Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea formed on 21 March 1942 during World War II. The civil administration of both Papua and the Mand ...

; he was initially inclined to join the

Second Australian Imperial Force The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF, or Second AIF) was the name given to the volunteer expeditionary force of the Australian Army in the Second World War. It was formed following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany, with an initia ...

in 1942 but was convinced by

Eric Feldt Commander Eric Augustas Feldt (3 January 1899 – 12 March 1968) was an officer in the Royal Australian Navy and the director of the Coastwatchers organisation for much of the Second World War. Early life Feldt was born in Ingham, North Que ...

, the naval intelligence officer in charge of the Coastwatcher service in New Guinea and the Solomons to remain in his post. Feldt had also been a district officer at Madang, and knew Read well from their mutual service. Shortly after this he was appointed as a lieutenant in the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve. In this position he created a coastwatching network in Bougainville to gather intelligence on Japanese movements. Due to his ideal position along the coast, his intelligence was to be especially valuable to the Allies during the initial phase of the

. Ian W. Toll writes in ''The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944'':

''For the second consecutive day, a coastwatcher had provided vital forewarning of an incoming airstrike. It was a pattern that would continue throughout the Solomons campaign. Every day, or nearly so, the Japanese sent airstrikes down from Rabaul—and every day, Jack Read or Paul Mason spotted the southbound formations overhead and relayed the warning. Read was especially well situated for this purpose because his vantage point at Porapora commanded a panoramic view of all of Buka Island to the north, the eastern sea channels leading down the “Slot” (the body of water between the double file of islands that formed the Solomons archipelago), and the skies through which Japanese aircraft must pass.''

This vital information denied the Japanese the advantage of a surprise attack and gave the Allies time to prepare for the incoming Japanese airstrike, by defensively dispersing their ships, manning anti-aircraft stations, and having their fighters in the air and ready to defend the fleet and the landings against the attack. The Japanese were aware of the intelligence-gathering activities of the coastwatches and it became a top priority to find and capture them; as spies, they would have been quickly executed if they weren't killed during their capture for their activities. Read was nearly killed on one occasion and had to change locations often. He was constantly assisted by local villagers who both helped him evade capture, assisted with his intelligence-gathering activities, and provided him with priceless knowledge of the local environment. Eventually with the Japanese closing in on him, he was evacuated by the United States in July 1943 on the submarine USS Guardfish, which also rescued other coastwatchers and Australian civilians. One of Read's final acts before being evacuated was to coordinate and assist with the evacuation of the civilians who had assisted him. On July 24, the day he was supposed to have been evacuated he discovered that no plans had been made to evacuate the indigenous police and civilians who had served with him. Having risked their lives for him, Read stated ''"There was no way I was going to leave without them."'' The Guardfish returned on July 30 and Read, along with the indigenous peoples who had assisted him, were evacuated. On October 7, 1942, Read was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by the United States for ''"extraordinary heroism"'' in service to the United States for his intelligence gathering during the Solomon Islands landing. Admiral William F. Halsey, the United States Navy commander for the South Pacific, stated that the intelligence gathered by Read on Bougainville had ''"saved Guadalcanal and that Guadalcanal had saved the South Pacific"'' Read was never honored by Australia or Britain for his service, a slight he attributed to prejudice against ''irregulars'' by the Australian Navy. Read was commissioned as a Major by the Australian Imperial Forces in September 1944 and served in the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit as acting district officer on Bougainville.

Post World War II

After the war, Read joined the administration of the

Territory of Papua and New Guinea The Territory of Papua and New Guinea, officially the Administrative Union of the Territory of Papua and the Territory of New Guinea, was established by an administrative union between the Australian-administered territories of Territory of Pap ...

in the position of assistant district officer. He was stationed in

Kavieng Kavieng is the capital of the Papua New Guinean province of New Ireland and the largest town on the island of the same name. The town is located at Balgai Bay, on the northern tip of the island. As of 2009, it had a population of 17,248. Kavi ...

New Ireland New Ireland may refer to: Geography * New Ireland (island), large island in the state of Papua New Guinea * New Ireland Province, administrative division of Papua New Guinea Politics * United Ireland, the proposed unification of the islan ...

. He remained in this position until May 3, 1951, to take up a civilian appointment in Melbourne with the Department of the Navy. However, he was unsatisfied with life away from Papua New Guinea and returned in 1952 to take up a position as Native (indigenous) Land Commissioner. In this position, he researched local indigenous histories and determined the land rights of individuals or communities based on hereditary or customary rights. He retired from this position in 1975 and left for Australia when Papua New Guinea gained independence. He retained his commission with the Australian Naval Reserve, was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1950 and eventually retired from naval service in 1963. In Australia, he would live in Melbourne with his wife pursuing his interest in photography. After over 50 years of marriage, his wife Gwen passed away in 1980 and he moved to Ballarat to be close to his only child Judith. After an extended illness, he died of lung disease on 29 June 1992 at Ballarat and was cremated.

Notes

References

External links

Videos
The Coastwatchers, Part 1
Australian Naval History, Season 4, Episode 5. Created and published b
UNSW Canberra
at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
The Coastwatchers, Part 1
Australian Naval History, Season 4, Episode 6.
"The Coast Watchers" - Guadalcanal 1942 (Part 1 of 2)

"The Coast Watchers" - Guadalcanal 1942 (Part 2 of 2)
Articles
Coast Watchers in the Solomons
John Brown, Warfare History Network. {{DEFAULTSORT:Read, William John People from Melbourne Australian expatriates in Papua New Guinea Australian military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) 1905 births 1992 deaths