Gordon Matthews Hector was born on 9 June 1918, the son of Dr George Pittendreigh Hector, Indian Agricultural Service. He was educated at St Mary's, Melrose, the Edinburgh Academy and, from 1936 to 1939, at Lincoln College, Oxford. His plans for further academic studies, after graduating B.A. in Modern History, were interrupted by the outbreak of war. He served with the Army from 1939 to 1945 in East Africa, Abyssinia, Madagascar, Ceylon, India and Burma.

In 1946 Hector joined the Colonial Overseas Service as a cadet in Kenya where he served until 1952. He then took up the post of Government Secretary in the Seychelles where he remained until 1955, acting as Governor for a period in 1953. He married Dr Mary Forrest Gray in 1954.

Hector was transferred to Basutoland in 1956 as Deputy Resident Commissioner and Government Secretary, a post which was re-designated 'Chief Secretary' in 1964 and 'Deputy British Government Representative' in 1965. When the Basutoland National Council was inaugurated as a Legislative Council on 12 March 1960 Hector was appointed Leader of the House, a position he held until the new Constitution was formed in 1965. In October 1966 he left the Lesotho Government and took up a post on the administrative staff of the University of Aberdeen. From 1980 until 1985 he was Secretary to the Assembly Council of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He died in 2001.