Barry Reed, CBE, MC, 89, chairman of the Austin Reed Group

[Michael Rhodes]

_.Barry St John Austin Reed, CBE, who died 13 October, 2020, aged 89, was Chairman, Austin Reed Group, 1973-96.

He was born 5 May, 1931, son of Douglas Austin Reed by his wife Mary Ellen Philpott; educated at Rugby School, Commissioned into the Middlesex Regiment in 1950, and served in Korea, 1950-51 [Military Cross]. Joined the Austin Reed Group in 1953, a Director of the company 1958-99, Managing Director, 1966-85; President of the Menswear Association of Britain, 1966-67; Chairman of the Retail Alliance 1967-70; Chairman, British Knitting and Clothing Export Council, 1985-89; Director, British Apparel and Textile Confederation 1992-99; Member of the Board of the Retail Standards Association, 1964-78; Member of the Consumer Protection Advisory Committee, 1973-79; Member of the European Trade Committee 1975-84; sometime President of the Royal Warrant Holders Association; President, the Vale of York Conservative Association, 1995-2000; Chairman, Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, 1990-95; sometime a member of Ripon and Leeds Diocese Synod, &c.

His home was a Carakehall House, Crakehall, near Bedale, North Yorkshire.

Mr Reed, who was appointed CBE in 1988, leaves a widow and two children.

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[Michael Rhodes]

_. Barry Reed, chairman of Austin Reed who brought dynamism and flared trousers – obituary [Daily Telegraph]


Barry Reed, who has died aged 89, was chairman and managing director of Austin Reed, the menswear chain founded by his grandfather, after winning an MC as a platoon commander in the Korean War....When he joined Austin Reed in the 1950s he brought ‘first-hand knowledge of what a young man really fancied in the way of dress....

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_.One of the Queen’s first tasks after she ascended the throne in 1952 was to pin a Military Cross on Barry Reed. He won it for hand-to-hand combat with Chinese forces in the Korean War, and the citation, “He never hesitated to get to grips with the enemy”, could have applied equally to the challenges he faced in selling suits against a relentless trend towards casualwear.

He was managing director, then chairman, of the family-controlled Austin Reed menswear chain during 30 years of radical social change, from 1966 to 1996. When the tall, charismatic Reed started work, a dark suit, white shirt and subdued tie were the uniform in then male-dominated offices. Any man turning up in a coloured shirt, or even a black blazer..... from the Times