William Thomas Reay

Who was William Thomas Reay?

Colonel William Thomas Reay CBE VD was an Australian journalist, newspaper editor and politician.

The son of an English sailmaker and his Irish wife, Reay was born in Sydney, but grew up in Williamstown, Melbourne. He ran away to sea when he was thirteen, but left his ship at Dunedin, New Zealand, and worked as a clerk for a while before working his way home. He then attended King's College, Melbourne and joined the Victoria Sugar Company at Yarraville, where he worked for nine years.

In June 1883 he bought the Coleraine Albion, followed by the Port Melbourne Standard. From 1887 to 1890 he was editor of the Hamilton Spectator, and from 1891 he was leader-writer and assistant editor of the Melbourne Daily Telegraph. When it closed in 1892 he moved to the Melbourne Weekly Times and then to The Herald as literary editor and later associate editor.

In 1886 he obtained a commission in the Victorian Mounted Rifles and commanded a detachment of them at the Queen's diamond jubilee in London in 1897.