John Pater was born on 15 March 1911. In 1938 he married Margaret Anderson Furtado (born 1911) and they had two sons and a daughter. He entered the civil service in 1933 in the Ministry of Health. He was then appointed private secretary to the Chief Medical Officer and in 1936 to the permanent secretary. In 1941 he accompanied the surveyors and wrote much of the Gray-Topping report on London hospitals and during 1943-1946 he had a leading part in the formulation of plans for a new health service and was responsible for preparing the instructions for parliamentary counsel for the 1946 legislation. As under-secretary from 1946 Pater had the task of ensuring that the terms of the legislation were made clear to the new hospital authorities. He remained in charge of the ministry's hospitals division until 1960. He was director of establishments from 1960 to 1965 and until he retired in October 1973 took charge of the ministry's division dealing with local authority services.