Geoffrey Reed
Australian security intelligence director
| Geoffrey Reed
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Geoffrey Reed |
| Born | 1892[1] |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Judge; intelligence director |
| Known for | Director-General of Security, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation 16 March 1949 – 30 June 1950[2] Judge, Supreme Court of South Australia |
| Education | University of Adelaide[1] |
Geoffrey Reed led the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) as director-general of security, from 1949 to 1950.[2]
Office held
| Office | Start | End | Predecessor | Successor | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director-General of Security, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation | 16 March 1949 | 30 June 1950 | First holder of the office | Charles Spry | [2] |
Legal and security career
Geoffrey Reed trained in law at the University of Adelaide and served in the Australian Imperial Force at the end of the First World War. He became a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1943. During the Second World War he chaired the South Australian National Security Advisory Committee and conducted an inquiry into security officer Robert Wake.[1]
Establishing ASIO
Ben Chifley’s government appointed Geoffrey Reed to build the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in 1949. David Horner describes the practical difficulties of creating a national organisation while investigating suspected Soviet espionage and trying to restore British and American confidence in Australian security.[3]
According to David Horner, the early service depended heavily on advice from MI5 and on leads from the Venona decrypts. Its officers were not initially told the origin of much of that intelligence. Reed reorganised the service in 1950 to coordinate counter-subversion, counter-espionage and protective security before returning to judicial duties.[4]
Covert sources and internal security
Rhys Crawley’s study of source protection describes Geoffrey Reed’s early arrangements for Australian Security Intelligence Organisation informants. In Sydney, agent master Norman Spry met sources at an Edgecliff office operating under a cover business name. Its existence was concealed from most of the organisation’s own staff, and agents received pseudonyms. Crawley distinguishes this agent master from Reed’s successor, Charles Spry, to whom he was not related.[5]
Source protection did not appear expressly in Geoffrey Reed’s original charter. Rhys Crawley nevertheless identifies it as an organising principle of the early Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, reinforced by Ben Chifley’s refusal to discuss the service’s personnel and methods publicly. The arrangements also had weaknesses: Norman Spry’s assistant complained about unsecured material and agents learning one another’s real names. Those practices became the subject of an investigation under Reed’s successor.[5]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 David Horner, The Spy Catchers: The Official History of ASIO, 1949–1963, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2014, chapter 1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Directors-General of Security, archived 12 February 2010, accessed 8 November 2026.
- ↑ David Horner, The Spy Catchers: The Official History of ASIO, 1949–1963, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2014, chapter 5.
- ↑ David Horner, The Spy Catchers: The Official History of ASIO, 1949–1963, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2014, chapter 6, ‘Beginning work on ‘the case’’.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Rhys Crawley, ‘Protecting the identity of ASIO agents: The case of Mercia Masson’, appendix to David Horner, The Spy Catchers: The Official History of ASIO, 1949–1963, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2014, section ‘Source protection’.