High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan GCMG, PC (3 January 1862 – 18 April 1939) was a British soldier and civil servant, who variously served as the Governor of Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Natal and Queensland. He was Under-Secretary for Ireland from 1914 to 1916, and was responsible, with the Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell, for co-ordinating the British response to the Easter Rising in Ireland.