As a composer his major output was opera, which was generally regarded as musically undistinguished but well-presented theatrically.
As a critic he worked for the Pall Mall Gazette and The Times, and served as assistant editor for the second and third editions of Grove.
He was born in Bradfield, Yorkshire, the second son of the Revd Reginald Gatty, and the nephew of composer Alfred Scott-Gatty.
From the beginning of the 20th century he was assistant conductor at Covent Garden, and at some time organist to the Duke of York's Royal Military School in Chelsea.
[2] His compositions include the operas Prince Ferelon (1919) written to his own libretto, which was published as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music[3] and was staged at the Old Vic in 1921, and The Tempest, (composed in 1914, with a libretto adapted by his brother René (Reginald Arthur Allix Gatty) which followed at the Old Vic in 1922.