Biography
Read, Matthew Patrick Joseph O’Donnell. (Pat); b. 1899, Ireland, to the US 1932; Irish American; WWI British Army, later IRA; Widowed; Journalist; IWW 1919; Served with the XIV (French) BDE, then to XV BDE, Lincoln BN; BDE Transimissiones, Section Leader (Chief of Transmissions); Dismissed by BDE Commissar Dave Doran; His evaluation noted, “Hard worker but undisciplined – complained against leadership.” And “Anti-political – die hard IWW. Demoted for his bad attitude and continued to carry on a campaign against the leadership.” Returned to the US on December 5, 1938 aboard the President Roosevelt; d. November 16, 1947, Chicago, Illinois.
Sources: Americans; Lincolns; RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 969, ll. 1-2; Anarchist, (obituary) Industrial Worker, November 22, 1947 (from web site Ireland and the SCW http://irelandscw.com/obit-PatRead.htm); Matt White "Wobblies in the Spanish Civil War" ASR (Anarcho-Syndicalist Review), 42/3,Winter 2005-6, p 44; L-W Tree Ancestry.
Photograph: Frank Barcena and Pat Read. The 15th International Brigade Photographic Unit Photograph Collection ; ALBA Photo _; ALBA Photo number 11-_. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.
Sources: Americans; Lincolns; RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 969, ll. 1-2; Anarchist, (obituary) Industrial Worker, November 22, 1947 (from web site Ireland and the SCW http://irelandscw.com/obit-PatRead.htm); Matt White "Wobblies in the Spanish Civil War" ASR (Anarcho-Syndicalist Review), 42/3,Winter 2005-6, p 44; L-W Tree Ancestry.
Photograph: Frank Barcena and Pat Read. The 15th International Brigade Photographic Unit Photograph Collection ; ALBA Photo _; ALBA Photo number 11-_. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.