Leonard Ernest "Nipper" Read – a British police officer and boxing administrator – died on 7 April, 2020 due to COVID-19.
Read was the son of Leonard Read Snr., who worked for a leather company, and his wife Ida (née Morris). His mother died when he was four and he was sent to live with her brother. After their father remarried, Leonard and his two sisters and brother returned to live with their father and stepmother.
Read did well in school, always being one of the top three pupils in junior and senior school. He learned to box, winning his first medal in 1937. He later joined the Grundy boxing club, where he was nicknamed "Nipper". Read had hoped to attend Nottingham High School and passed the entrance exam, but his father could not afford the uniform and fees for books. He left school at 14 and later in life regretted not being able to stretch himself academically.
Read was called up in 1943 and served as a petty officer in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.
Read could not join the Nottinghamshire Combined Constabulary which had a minimum height requirement of 6 feet (1.8 m). Instead, he joined the Metropolitan Police in 1947, which had a minimum height requirement of 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m), telling the medical examiner he was still growing. Because of his small stature he was taken out of the uniform branch and made an aide to CID. His acting ability came in useful and he worked in disguise in several roles, on the basis that nobody would believe he was a police officer.
Read was promoted to detective sergeant in 1958 and transferred to Chelsea to replace Raymond Purdy, who had been shot by the burglar and blackmailer Guenther Podola.
He was promoted to detective inspector at Leman Street. He was detective chief superintendent of the Met's Murder Squad in 1967, and the efforts of detectives led by him were responsible for the conviction of Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
Read held various positions as a boxing administrator, including chairman of the British Boxing Board of Control, vice president of the World Boxing Council and vice-president of the World Boxing Association.
Read died of COVID-19 on 7 April 2020, one week after his 95th birthday.