John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort
Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, (commonly known as
Lord Gort)
VC,
GCB,
CBE,
DSO and two Bars,
MVO,
MC (
July 10,
1886 -
March 31 1946) was a
British soldier who served in both
World War I and
II, rising to the rank of
Field Marshal and receiving the
Victoria Cross.
He was born in
London and grew up in
County Durham and the
Isle of Wight. He was educated at Malvern Link Preparatory School and
Harrow School and then entered the
Royal Military Academy in January
1904, having succeeded his father to the family title in
1902. He was commissioned in the
Grenadier Guards in July
1905 where he took to his duties with exceptional zeal.
On the death of
King Edward VII in
1910 Lieutenant Gort was in command of the Grenadier NCOs detailed to bear the coffin and attend the
catafalque. He was made a Member of the
Royal Victorian Order for his services. Later that year he went
moose hunting in
Canada and accidentally shot his Indian guide, prompting an immediate return.
On
22 February 1911 he married Corinna Vereker, a second cousin, at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks. They had three children, Charles in 1912, Joscelyn in 1913, and Jacqueline in 1914. They divorced in 1925.
On
3 September 1913 he was appointed
ADC to General Francis Lloyd, GO Commanding London District.
By
1914 he had reached the rank of
Captain. He fought on the
Western Front, was
mentioned in dispatches nine times, and won a
Military Cross and
Distinguished Service Order and two bars.
He was awarded the
Victoria Cross for his actions on
27 September 1918 at the
Canal du Nord, near Flesquieres,
France. Lieutenant Colonel Gort led his battalion under very heavy fire and although wounded, when the battalion was held up he went across open ground to obtain assistance from a tank and personally led it to the best advantage. He was again wounded, but after lying on a stretcher for a while insisted on getting up and directing the further attack which resulted in the capture of over 200 prisoners, two batteries of field-guns and numerous machine-guns. He refused to leave the field until the success signal had gone up on the final objective. Gort's soldier servant, Guardsman Ransome, was killed while helping Gort to safety.
After attending a short course at the
Staff College, Camberley in
1919, Gort returned in
1921 as an instructor.
He took up
sailing in 1922 and was a keen yatchsman until the next war intervened, joining the
Royal Yacht Squadron in 1922 and participating in the 1925
Fastnet race. In 1924 he rewrote the
Infantry Training Manual.
He was promoted to
Colonel in
1925, and in January
1927 went to
Shanghai, returning in August to give a first hand account of the Chinese situation to the
King and the
Prince of Wales. He went on to command the
Guards Brigade for two years from
1930 before overseeing training in
India and then returning to the Staff College in
1936 as Commander.
In
1932 he took up flying, buying the
de Haviland Moth aeroplane
Henrietta and being elected chairman of the
Household Brigade Flying Club.
He was made a full
General in
1937, unusually being promoted directly from
Major-General and never holding the rank of
Lieutenant-General, and was then the surprise choice to be
Chief of the Imperial General Staff. At this office he advocated the primacy of building a land army and defending
France and the
Low Countries over
Imperial defence after France had said she would not be able on her own to defend herself against a
German attack. The
First Sea Lord Sir
Roger Backhouse argued that this Continental commitment might not be limited. Gort replied by saying '
Lord Kitchener had clearly pointed out that no great country can wage a "little" war'.
At the outbreak of war he was given command of the
British Expeditionary Force (
BEF) in
France, arriving on
September 19 1939. Following the
Phony War, the
1940 German break-through in the
Ardennes split the Allied forces. Communications between the BEF and the French effectively broke down, and on 25 May Gort took the unilateral decision to ignore his orders for a southward attack by his forces. Withdrawing northwards, the BEF together with many French soldiers were evacuated during the
Battle of Dunkirk. The disposition of the BEF was attacked, in hindsight and at the time, as too conventional – chiefly due to lack of any kind of defensive works. Gort is credited by some as reacting efficiently to the ensuing crisis. There is no doubt that Gort's decision to save the BEF from near certain capture helped Britain remain in the war and prevented British morale from falling even further.
Gort served in various positions for the duration of the war. On the day of his return, 1 June 1940, he was made an ADC General to
King George VI. On 25 June he went by flying boat, with
Duff Cooper, to
Rabat,
Morocco, to rally anti-Nazi french cabinet ministers, but was instead arrested by
Vichy gendarmerie. Gort was given the post of Inspector of Training and the Home Guard, and with nothing constructive to do visited
Iceland, the
Orkneys, and the
Shetland Islands. He went on to serve as
Governor of Gibraltar (
1941-
1942). He pushed ahead with extending the airfield into land reclaimed from the sea, against the advice of the British government, but was later thanked by the
War Cabinet for his foresight when the airfield proved vital to the British
Mediterranean campaign. As
Governor of Malta (
1942-
1944) his courage and leadership during the siege was recognised by the Maltese giving him the Sword of Honour. The King gave Gort his field marshal's baton on 20 June 1943 at Malta. On 29 September Gort, together with
Eisenhower and
Alexander, witnessed
Marshal Badoglio signing the Italian surrender in
Valetta Harbour.
He ended the war as High Commissioner for
Palestine and
Transjordan. During a meeting in November
1945 with
Alanbrooke and
Montgomery Gort collapsed and was flown to London where the diagnosis was cancer.
He was created a viscount in the
Peerage of the United Kingdom under the same title in February
1946. Upon his death on 31 March 1946 without a son, the
Irish viscountcy of Gort passed to a cousin and the British creation became extinct.
He was the father-in-law of Major
William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'Isle VC, and first cousin-once-removed to General Sir
Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton. Gort was present when his son-in-law received the VC from Alexander on 3 March 1944 in Italy (the VC ribbon was cut from one of Gort's uniforms).
*
Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
*
The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
*
VCs of the First World War - The Final Days 1918 (Gerald Gliddon, 2000)
*
J R Colville,
Man of Valour, (Collins, London
1972) ISBN 0-00-211290-6
*
Location of grave and VC medal (Kent)
