READ, Lionel
| Service Number: | 1360 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 14 July 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Gunner |
| Last Unit: | 4th Divisional Ammunition Column |
| Born: | Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia, 16 February 1893 |
| Home Town: | Wellington, Wellington, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Newspaper reporter |
| Died: | 1937, cause of death not yet discovered, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Wellington Hall of Memory Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 14 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1360, 7th Light Horse Regiment | |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 1360, 7th Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '2' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: '' | |
| 5 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 1360, 7th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Themistocles, Sydney | |
| 16 Mar 1917: | Discharged AIF WW1, Gunner, 1360, 4th Divisional Ammunition Column, Discharged to Royal Flying Corps with rank of 2nd Lieutenant |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
12th August, 1917 2nd Lt. Lionel Read 1st Squadron RFC, was shot down and made a prisoner of war of the Germans. Read was flying a Nieuport 17 when brought down and captured after combat with 7 enemy aircraft over the German lines. The victory was credited to Willi Kampe of Jasta 27. Read was the first of Kampe's eventual 8 victories. Lionel Read was a newspaper reporter from Wellington, NSW, and had enlisted in the 7th Light Horse Regiment AIF.
His true name seems to be Alfred John Lionel Lee according to later records. He was transferred to the unemployed list of the RFC in June 1919 and it is not known how he returned to Australia.
Wellington Independent reported during September 1921 that Lieutenant Lee had been seriously injured in a plane crash at Yabtree Station, near Wagga. He was flying an Avro with two lady passengers, and while volplaning the engine was shut off at 70 feet, but the machine immediately encountered an air pocket, nosedived, and got out of control. The passengers escaped without injury, but Lieut. Lee sustained a fracture of the skull and two broken ribs. He was removed to the Wagga Hospital in an unconscious condition. His father was editor of the Wellington Gazette.
Lee's death was reported in the newspaers of 1937.
LIONEL LEE DIES, SMITHY'S' COBBER AFTER THE WAR SYDNEY.
Lionel Lee, airman and journalist, has joined his flying 'cobber' of other days— Sir Charles Kingaford Smith. Lee got 'Smithy' his first job in Sydney with the Diggers' Aviation Company. The late Mr. Lee died suddenly yesterday at the age of 43. Alter the war 'Smithy,' tired of stunting for the movies and scaring ducks off ricefields for a living in America, returned to Sydney. When he landed in January 1921, he was 'broke.' Lionel Lee who trained with Kingsford Smith in the same camp at Oxford, recommended 'Smithy' for a Job with the Diggers' Aviation Coy., of which Lee was then chief pilot. It was a remarkable concern, founded on Diggers' war bonds and that enthusiasm which was characteristic of Lionel Lee.
Later Lee and Kingsford Smith went 'barnstorming' In old Avro 'planes secured from England, and at several New South Wales country towns many residents made their first flights with these two pilots. Lionel Lee enlisted in the AIF, and served with a trench mortar unit. Like 'Smithy,' he wanted to fly. and he succeeded in transferring to the Royal Flying Corps. He was shot down over the German lines by an aristocratic German ace. Lee was entertained at the German air officers' mess behind the lines, but later had to go through the rigors of a German prison camp. Yesterday morning he went for his usual swim at Manly beach — which he did summer and winter, before going into 'The Sun' office, where he was employed. He collapsed, and medical efforts failed to save him.