John Kingsley Read

Who was John Kingsley Read?

John Kingsley Read was chairman of the British National Front from 1974 to 1976 and a founder of the National Party.

A former member of the Conservative Party and chairman of the Blackburn Young Conservatives, Read left to join the NF in 1973 having addressed a rally against the arrival of Ugandan Asians in Britain earlier that same year in Blackburn.

A strong orator, Read rose quickly through the NF ranks, his style drawing comparisons to American politician George Wallace, to whom he also bore a passing physical resemblance. Read was later denounced as a drunkard by Andrew Fountaine.

After securing the support of potential rival Roy Painter, Read was elected Chairman of the National Front in 1974, with the neo-imperialist John Tyndall his deputy chairman, in what was regarded as a vote by the 'populist' or Strasserite wing of the party against the authoritarian Tyndall.

Later Read himself "drifted" into the populist camp but was only narrowly re-elected as Chairman in 1975. He tried to expel Tyndall from the party but Read's decision was overturned at the High Court.