Raymond Reade

{{Short description|British Army general}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}

{{Infobox military person

|name = Raymond Reade

|image = Raymond Northland Revell Reade.jpg

|image_size =

|alt =

|caption = Reade in 1917

|nickname =

|birth_date = {{circa|1861}}

|birth_place = Chelsea, London, England

|death_date = {{death date and given age|df=y|1943|10|18|83}}

|death_place = Samford, Suffolk,{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=rXj7g6svNqMn0QnYO0xElA&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=17 April 2023|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}} England

|placeofburial =

|allegiance = United Kingdom

|branch = British Army

|serviceyears = 1880–1920

|rank = Major General

|servicenumber =

|unit =

|commands = 68th (2nd Welsh) Division
59th (2nd North Midland) Division
Straits Settlements
Royal Military College of Canada

|battles = First World War

|awards = Companion of the Order of the Bath{{London Gazette|issue=28151|page=4642|date=23 June 1908|supp=y}}
Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George
Commander of the Royal Order of George I (Greece)
Medal of Military Merit, 1st Class (Greece)

|relations =

|laterwork =

}}

Major General Raymond Northland Revell Reade, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|CB|CMG}} ({{circa|1861}} – 18 October 1943) was a British Army general and Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada.

Background

Born in Chelsea, London,{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=EuhH%2BJqNjYLk2NI%2BOahuxQ&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=17 April 2023|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}} he was the son of John Page Reade and his wife Lady Mary Stuart Knox, daughter of Thomas Knox, 2nd Earl of Ranfurly. He was educated at Eton College and went to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.{{cite book |last1=Tulchinsky |first1=Gerald J. J. |title=To Preserve & Defend |year=1976 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP |isbn=978-0-7735-0214-7 |page=126 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WcWhBhb6LlsC&pg=PA126 }}

Military career

File:Major General Raymond Northland Revell Reade.jpg

Reade was commissioned into the 85th Regiment of Foot on 14 January 1880.{{London Gazette|issue=24800|page=146|date=13 January 1880}} He was promoted to captain in October 1887.{{London Gazette|issue=25754|page=5873|date=4 November 1887}}

After serving as a temporary major{{London Gazette|issue=26915|page=7177|date=30 November 1897}} in West Africa, he served as commandant of Royal Military College of Canada from 1901 to 1905. His criticism of poor RMC examination marks in French, physics and chemistry in 1901 and surveying and physics 1904 led to reforms at the college: smaller classes for French, entrance tests in physics and chemistry, and separate instructors for physics and surveying. He also built up the RMC library and extended library privileges to Permanent Force Officers in the Kingston, Ontario, area. A 25-bed hospital was also constructed adjacent to the education block, and a large gymnasium was constructed south of the Stone Frigate. He secured quarters for the staff-adjutant and his family in what was later called Panet House, after the first resident. He built an extension to the rear of the Stone Frigate for bathroom facilities.Preston, Richard Arthur Preston (1982) "Canada's RMC – A History of Royal Military College" Second Edition

Reade, promoted to colonel in February 1907,{{London Gazette|issue=27998|page=1283|date=22 February 1907}} became an assistant adjutant and quartermaster general in October,{{London Gazette|issue=28079|page=7581|date=12 November 1907}} served in Malta and Scotland and, after being promoted to major general in July 1912,{{London Gazette|issue=28627|page=5183|date=16 July 1912}} became general officer commanding the Troops in the Straits Settlements in 1914.{{cite web|url=http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf |title=Army Commands|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705211343/http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf |archive-date=5 July 2015 }}

Poor health prevented his active service in the First World War, but he commanded the 59th (2nd North Midland) Division from November 1915 to February 1916, and the 68th (2nd Welsh) Division for most of 1916 while the formation was under training in the UK.{{harvnb|Becke|1937|pp=17 and 83}} He was the British representative on the Inter-Allied Military Mission to Greece in 1918, for which he was appointed a Commander of the Royal Order of George I and awarded the Medal of Military Merit, 1st Class from Greece.{{London Gazette|issue=31659|page=14639|date=26 November 1919|supp=y}}{{London Gazette|issue=13530|page=3706|date=28 November 1919|city=e}}

He retired from the army in March 1920.{{London Gazette|issue=31882|page=4974|date=27 April 1920|supp=y}} He was colonel of his old regiment, the KSLI, from January 1921 until February 1931, taking over from Lieutenant General Sir Charles Edmond Knox.{{London Gazette|issue=32215|page=934|date=1 February 1921|supp=y}}

Family

Reade married Rose Frances Spencer, daughter of Colonel Almeric George Spencer and Alice Isabel Fraser, on 9 June 1894.{{cite web|url=http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/arthur-charles-fox-davies/armorial-families--a-directory-of-gentlemen-of-coat-armour-volume-2-dxo/page-146-armorial-families--a-directory-of-gentlemen-of-coat-armour-volume-2-dxo.shtml|first=Arthur Charles|last= Fox-Davies|title=Armourial families: a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour (Volume 2) |access-date=14 June 2020}}

References

{{reflist}}

Sources

  • {{cite book| last = Becke | first = Major A.F.| year = 1937| title = Order of Battle of Divisions Part 2B. The 2nd-Line Territorial Force Divisions (57th–69th) with The Home-Service Divisions (71st–73rd) and 74th and 75th Divisions| publisher = His Majesty's Stationery Office | location = London| isbn = 1-871167-00-0}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-aca}}

{{succession box

| title=Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada

| before= Edward Thornton Taylor

| after=Gerald Kitson

| years=1905–1909

}}

{{s-mil}}

{{s-bef|before=Theodore Stephenson}}

{{s-ttl|title=GOC Troops in the Straits Settlements|years=1914–1915}}

{{s-aft|after=Sir Dudley Ridout}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Henry MacCall}}

{{s-ttl|title=GOC 59th (2nd North Midland) Division|years=1915–1916}}

{{s-aft|after=Arthur Sandbach}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Arthur Sandbach}}

{{s-ttl|title=GOC 68th (2nd Welsh) Division|years=1916–1917}}

{{s-aft|after=Edward Perceval}}

|-

{{s-hon}}

{{s-bef|before=Charles Edmond Knox}}

{{s-ttl|title=Colonel of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry|years=1921–1931}}

{{s-aft|after=Sir Charles Grant}}

{{s-end}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reade, Raymond}}

Category:1860s births

Category:1943 deaths

Category:British Army major generals

Category:British Army generals of World War I

Category:Commandants of the Royal Military College of Canada

Category:Commanders of the Order of George I

Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George

Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath

Category:King's Shropshire Light Infantry officers

Category:Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Category:People from Chelsea, London

Category:19th-century British Army personnel