[3] After the death of his wife Annie in 1943, Mears in 1951 married her cousin, Margaret Tempest, an author and illustrator of children's books.
[7][11] In 1918, he was Lord Reading's assistant on a trip to Washington,[7] when he represented Britain on the inter-allied cereal committee.
[12] He despised Indian nationalism and during his time in Allahabad, he tried to persuade Jawaharlal Nehru to become education minister for the British government in India.
[13][14][15] In India, Mears acted as an intermediary between the then viceroy Edward Wood (later Lord Irwin) and key leaders in the Indian National Congress.
[16][17] It was subsequently at Mears' suggestion to Irwin that a round table conference was convened to discuss the request.