Nathan was the son of Harry Nathan and his wife Eleanor. His father was a Liberal politician who joined the Labour Party in 1934, who was created Baron Nathan in 1940 after he stood down as Member of Parliament for Wandsworth Central to allow Ernest Bevin to take the seat.
Nathan was educated at Stowe School and at New College, Oxford.
He was called up in the Second World War. After training at Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the 17th/21st Lancers in 1942 and saw active service in North Africa, Italy, Austria, and Greece. He was mention in dispatches, and demobilised with the rank of captain in 1946.
He returned to New College, Oxford, and read law.
From 1948, he took his articles with his father, then on leave as Minister of Civil Aviation, and joined his father"s firm, Herbert Oppenheimer Nathan and Vandyk. He worked on the flotations of Sainsbury"s and Plessey on the London Stock Exchange.
He succeeded his father as the 2nd Baron Nathan in 1963 and sat on the crossbenches. He was involved in environmental issues, and various charities.
He was chairman and then a vice-president of the Royal Society of Arts from 1975 to 1977.
He was president of the Jewish Welfare Board from 1967 to 1971, and chairman and later honorary president of the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. He became an honorary Doctor of Laws at the University of Sussex in 1988. He was president of the Society of Sussex Downsmen in 1987, and later chairman of the South Downs Conservation Board.
He was a member of the Cavalry Club, and served as Master of the Gardeners" Company.
