G. H. Mair

Who was G. H. Mair?

George Herbert Mair CMG was a British journalist and civil servant.

Mair was the son of a Royal Navy surgeon. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, Christ Church, Oxford, and the Sorbonne. In 1909 he got a job as leader writer, drama critic and special correspondent on the Manchester Guardian, and was appointed political correspondent and literary editor in London in 1911. He became assistant editor of the Daily Chronicle in 1914.

On the outbreak of the First World War, Mair attempted to join the armed forces, but was decreed medically unfit and instead joined the Foreign Office, becoming head of the Department of Information. When the Ministry of Information was formed in 1918, he became Assistant Secretary. He attended the Versailles Conference as Director of the Press Section of the British Delegation, and for this work he was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1920 New Year Honours.

He was appointed Assistant Director of the League of Nations Secretariat in Geneva, and then returned to London as head of the League of Nations office in that city. He later returned to journalism as drama critic for the Evening Standard.