{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}} {{Use British English|date=April 2016}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Brigadier-General |name = Sir George Gater |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCMG|KCB|DSO*|JP}} |image = |caption = |birth_date = {{birth date|1886|12|26|df=yes}} |birth_place = |death_date = {{death date and age|1963|01|14|1886|12|26|df=yes}} |death_place = |rank = Brigadier-General |service_years = 1914 - 1919 |allegiance = {{UK}} |branch = 23px British Army |commands = 6th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment<br>62nd Brigade |battles = First World War |awards = Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George<br>Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath<br>Distinguished Service Order and bar<br>Croix de guerre<br>Mentioned in Dispatches }}

Brigadier-General '''Sir George Henry Gater''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|GCMG|KCB|DSO1|JP}} (26 December 1886 – 14 January 1963) was a senior British Army officer and civil servant.

==Early life== Gater was born in Southampton, the son of William Henry Gater, a solicitor, and his wife, Ada Mary Welch.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=35580 |page=2406 |date=2 June 1942}}</ref> He was educated at Twyford School, Winchester College and New College, Oxford.<ref>Twyford School - Old Twyfordians online biographies http://www.twyfordschool.com/TwyfordSociety/NotableOTs.asp?biography=g_l {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220015330/http://www.twyfordschool.com/TwyfordSociety/NotableOTs.asp?biography=g_l |date=20 February 2014 }}</ref> After he achieved fourth in classical moderations (1907), he graduated with a second-class degree in modern history in 1909, and then took a diploma in education. He trained as a teacher, and became Director of Education for Nottinghamshire County Council in 1911.

==First World War== Upon the outbreak of the First World War, Gater enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters, his local regiment.<ref>F. G. Spring, ''The History of the 6th (Service) Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment'' (Poacher Books, 2008), 34.</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28876 |page=6596 |date=21 August 1914}}</ref> and promoted to lieutenant in October.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28982 |supp=y |page=9661 |date=20 November 1914}}</ref>

He was promoted to captain in 1915, before being deployed to Gallipoli with the 9th battalion of his regiment, part of the 33rd Brigade of the 11th (Northern) Division. He was promoted to major whilst serving in the Gallipoli Campaign. His unit was evacuated from the Mediterranean in December 1915, being redeployed to the Western Front in 1916. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in October 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. That same month he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and given command of the 6th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment.<ref>F. G. Spring, ''The History of the 6th (Service) Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment'' (Poacher Books, 2008), 47-49.</ref> Whilst commanding the battalion at Messines, he sustained a wound in the mouth and ear by a shell splinter but remained on duty, and for this he was awarded a bar to his DSO.<ref>G. H. Gater in ''21st Division 1914-1918, A Divisional History'' http://www.21stdivision1914-18.org/ghgater.htm</ref>

On 1 November 1917, Gater was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general and chosen as commander of the 62nd Brigade after the death of Brigadier General Cecil Rawling.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30411|page=12651|date=30 November 1917}}</ref> This appointment was unprecedented, as Gater had only served in the army for three years. He led the brigade during the German spring offensive of 1918, refusing to surrender his position despite its encirclement by German forces.

He was wounded twice, mentioned in dispatches four times, awarded a DSO in the 1916 Birthday Honours when a temporary major<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29608 |supp=y |page=5567 |date=2 June 1916}}</ref> and a bar in September 1917 when temporary lieutenant colonel,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30287 |supp=y |page=9555 |date=14 September 1917}}</ref> made a commander of the Légion d'honneur, awarded the French Croix de Guerre in November 1918,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30995 |supp=y |page=13116 |date=5 November 1918}}</ref> and made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1919 New Year Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31092 |supp=y |page=4 |date=31 December 1918}}</ref> All of his promotions were temporary, but he was given the honorary rank of brigadier general in 1919.

==Late life== {{More citations needed section|date=November 2022}} Following the war, Gater became a civil servant. He was Director of Education in Lancashire between 1919 and 1924, in charge of 4,000 teachers and 118,000 children in the Lancashire school system. He moved to London in 1924, succeeding Robert Blair as the second Director of Education at London County Council until 1933, with 480,000 children in its schools. He spent much time reorganising and rebuilding the school system in London after the Geddes Axe of 1921. He advocated the development of Bloomsbury for the University of London.

In 1933, he succeeded Sir Montagu Cox as Clerk to London County Council. He was knighted in the 1936 Birthday Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=34296 |supp=y |page=3996 |date=23 June 1936}}</ref>

In July 1939, he became Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Home Security and subsequently served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from February 1940, but then transferred to the Ministry of Supply in May 1940, and then back to the Ministry of Home Security in October 1940, finally returning to the Colonial Office in April 1942. In later parts of the war he was involved in secret deliberations of the British government regarding possible postwar solutions to the question of Palestine and had contacts with the Zionist leader Chaim Weitzman.

He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 1941 Birthday Honours,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=35184 |supp=y |page=3283 |date=6 June 1941}}</ref> and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 1944 New Year Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=36309 |supp=y |page=5 |date=1 January 1944}}</ref>

He became a Fellow at Winchester College in 1936, and he was Warden of Winchester College from 1951 to 1959.<ref>G. H. Gater in ''21st Division 1914-1918, A Divisional History'' http://www.21stdivision1914-18.org/ghgater.htm</ref> In addition, he was a Justice of the Peace. In 1958 he was appointed a part-time member of the London Electricity Board.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Electrical Review|title=News of Men and Women of the Industry|volume=162|page=529|year=1958}}</ref>

He married Irene (née Nichols) in 1926. She was the daughter of John Bowyer Buchanan Nichols; one of her brothers was the poet Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols. They had one son.

==References== {{Reflist}}

*{{Cite book |title = The History of the 6th (Service) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment 1914 - 1919 |last = Spring |first = F.G. |location = |publisher = Poacher Books |year = 2008 |page = 56 |url = }} * [http://www.21stdivision1914-18.org/ghgater.htm Brigadier-General G H Gater], 21st Division 1914-18...a divisional history * J. M. Lee, ‘Gater, Sir George Henry (1886–1963)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33354 accessed 17 Nov 2015] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=0hudBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA157 British Infantry Battalion Commanders in the First World War], Dr Peter E Hodgkinson, p.&nbsp;157-161 * [https://glumheroes.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/citizens-of-1914-promoted-brigadier-general/ Citizens of 1914 promoted Brigadier-General] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119170005/https://glumheroes.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/citizens-of-1914-promoted-brigadier-general/ |date=19 November 2015 }}, P.E. Hodgkinson, 28 September 2015

==External links== *{{NPG name|name=Sir George Henry Gater}}

{{s-start}} {{s-gov}} {{succession box | title = Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies | before = Sir Cosmo Parkinson | after = Sir Cosmo Parkinson | years = 1940}}

{{succession box | title = Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies | before = Sir Cosmo Parkinson | after = Sir Thomas Lloyd | years = 1942–1947}} {{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gater, George}} Category:1886 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Royal Lincolnshire Regiment officers Category:Sherwood Foresters officers Category:British Army generals of World War I Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Category:British recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Category:People educated at Winchester College Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:British Army brigadier-generals Category:Military personnel from Southampton Category:Foreign Office personnel of World War II Category:Civil servants in the Colonial Office Category:Permanent under-secretaries of state for the colonies