John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort

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Field Marshal The Right Honourable 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 East Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight and grew up in County Durham. He was educated at Harrow School and then the Royal Military Academy. He succeeded his father to the family title in 1902 and he was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards in 1905.

1 First World War
2 Inter-war years and Second World War
3 References
4 External links

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First World War

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.

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Inter-war years and Second World War

Gort taught at the Staff College, Camberley after the war. He was promoted to Colonel in 1925 and 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.

He was made a 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'.

In 1939 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 German break-through in the Ardennes split the Allied forces. Withdrawing northwards the BEF and many French soldiers 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.

Back in England, Gort served in various positions for the duration of the war. He was made an aide to King George VI in 1940 and went on to serve as Governor of Gibraltar (1941-1942) then Malta (1942-1944). He ended the war as High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan. He attained the rank of Field Marshal in 1943.

He was created a viscount in the Peerage of the United Kingdom under the same title in 1946. Upon his death 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. His was first cousin-once-removed, to General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton.

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