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. 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, and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 1944 New Year Honours. He became a Fellow at Winchester College in 1936, and he was Warden of Winchester College from 1951 to 1959. In addition, he was a Justice of the Peace. 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 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 accessed 17 Nov 2015 British Infantry Battalion Commanders in the First World War, Dr Peter E Hodgkinson, p. 157-161 Citizens of 1914 promoted Brigadier-General , P.E. Hodgkinson, 28 September 2015 External links 1886 births 1963 deaths Royal Lincolnshire Regiment officers Sherwood Foresters officers British Army generals of World War I Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and