Sir Andrew Reed KCB CVO JP, Anglo-Irish barrister and inspector-general of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), is born in Galway, County Galway, on September 26, 1837.
Reed is the son of John Reed of Galway and Mary Adamson of County Meath. He is educated at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and called to the Bar in 1873. He enters the Royal Irish Constabulary and is appointed District Inspector in 1859; becoming Inspector-General in 1885. He retires 1900.
Aside from being the only RIC cadet officer to be promoted to Inspector General, Reed changes the rules for promotion in the Royal Irish Constabulary. Up until his tenure, Catholics had little success in attaining promotions. Even though most of the force is Catholic, almost all the officers are non-Catholic. He institutes a rule that each year, sixty men who are Catholic and pass the Sergeant’s exam will be promoted.
Reed is appointed a Knight Bachelor in 1889, a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1892, a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1900 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1897.
Reed’s son, Major General Hamilton Lyster Reed, is awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery in the Second Boer War.
Reed dies in Dublin on November 7, 1914, and is buried in Dean’s Grange Cemetery. His epitaph reads: – “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 John 4.)
