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

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, 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 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

Victoria (Australia) Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a States and territories of Australia, state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), ...

), 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. Its land area is . The highest point is Mount Balbi, on the main island, at . The much smaller Buk ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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 military campaign, campaign of the Pacific War during World War II. The campaign began with the Empire of Japan, Japanese seizure of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island, B ...

and the

New Guinea campaign The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Territory of New Guinea on 23 January and Territory of Papua on ...

. 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 before leaving for public service in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. 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. History Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai was probably the first Eur ...

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

Morobe Province Morobe 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 Province ...

World War II

Madang Province Madang is a Provinces of Papua New Guinea, 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 capi ...

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 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; he was initially inclined to join the

Second Australian Imperial Force The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF, or Second AIF) was 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 initial strength of one ...

in 1942 but was convinced by Eric Feldt, 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 Papua and New ...

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. 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 Army personnel of World War II Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) 1905 births 1992 deaths Royal Australian Navy personnel of World War II Royal Australian Navy officers