Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Read graduated from the Dalhousie Law School in 1909.

He completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University before receiving a Rhodes Scholarship.

During World War I, he served with the Canadian Field Artillery where he was wounded and achieved the rank of Major.

In 1929, he was appointed Legal Advisor of the Department of External Affairs and rose to become a Deputy Undersecretary of State.

In 1942, Read devised a method to permit a extraterritorial space for the birth for Princess Margriet of the Netherlands to ensure she was not born on foreign soil, which would have made her ineligible for the royal succession.