Mead was the son of Robert George Mead, a horse trainer, and Lillian Margaret Ryan. On the 5 April 1947, he married Vaila Margaret Pender, a pianist, and had three sons and a daughter.
Mead was a journalist in the federal parliamentary press gallery for ten years; special writer and music critic for the Daily Telegraph from 1952 to 1955; chief of staff from 1955 to 1961; and managing editor Suburban Publications Pty. Ltd. from 1961 to 1965.
Mead was the Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly for Hurstville from May 1965 to May 1976.
He had a range of cultural interests and was governor of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music from 1966. In 1994 he received the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to journalism and the community.
