John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort

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Early lifeEdit

Vereker was born in London. His mother was Eleanor, Viscountess Gort née Surtees (1857–1933;<ref>GRO Birth record for Eleanor Surtees 1857 Jun qtr, Durham, Vol 10a, page 218, mother's maiden name Fenwick</ref> later Eleanor Benson),<ref name=mosley2003>Template:Cite book</ref> who was a daughter of the writer Robert Smith Surtees. Vereker's father was John Gage Prendergast Vereker, 5th Viscount Gort (1849–1902).<ref name=mosley2003/>

J. S. S. P. Vereker grew up in County Durham and the Isle of Wight. He was educated at Malvern Link Preparatory School, Harrow School,Template:Sfn and entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in January 1904.Template:Sfn As Viscount Gort, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 16 August 1905,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref><ref name="page279">Template:Harvnb</ref> and promoted to lieutenant on 1 April 1907.<ref name="page279"/>

In November 1908, Gort visited his uncle, Jeffrey Edward Prendergast Vereker, a retired British army major, who was living in Canada, at Kenora, Ontario. During a moose hunting trip, Gort slipped off a large boulder, causing his rifle to discharge; the bullet injured a local guide, William Prettie, who later died of his wound in Winnipeg. Gort returned immediately to England.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> While studying at Trinity College, Cambridge he was initiated into Isaac Newton University Lodge.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Gort commanded the detachment of Grenadier Guards that bore the coffin at the funeral of King Edward VII in May 1910.<ref name="page279"/> He was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in June 1910.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

First World WarEdit

On 5 August 1914, Gort was promoted to captain.<ref name="Cpt">Template:London Gazette</ref> He went to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and fought on the Western Front, taking part in the retreat from Mons in August 1914.<ref name="page280">Heathcote 1999, p. 280.</ref> He became a staff officer with the First Army in December 1914 and then very briefly served as a general staff officer, grade 3 (GSO3) in February 1915<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> before he became brigade major of the 4th (Guards) Brigade, commanded then by Brigadier General The Earl of Cavan, a future field marshal, in April 1915.<ref name="page280"/><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was awarded the Military Cross in June 1915.<ref name="MC">Template:London Gazette</ref> Promoted to the brevet rank of major Template:Sfn in June 1916, he became a staff officer at the headquarters of the BEF and fought at the Battle of the Somme throughout the autumn of 1916.<ref name="page280"/> He was given the acting rank of lieutenant colonel in April 1917<ref name="rank">Template:London Gazette</ref> on appointment as Commanding Officer of 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards and, having been awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in June 1917,<ref name="DSO">Template:London Gazette</ref> he led his battalion at the Battle of Passchendaele,<ref name="page280"/> earning a Bar to his DSO in September 1917.<ref name="DSO2">Template:London Gazette</ref> The bar's citation reads:<ref name="bar citation">Template:London Gazette</ref>

Template:Quote

On 27 November 1918, sixteen days after the war came to an end, Gort was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, for his actions on 27 September 1918 at the Battle of the Canal du Nord, near Flesquieres, France.<ref name="VC"/>

Victoria Cross citation

Template:Quote

Subsequent to this he became known as "Tiger" Gort.<ref name="2tiger">Template:Cite magazine</ref> He won a second Bar to his DSO in January 1919, with the citation reading:

Template:Quote

He was also mentioned in despatches eight times during the war.<ref name="page280"/>

Inter-war yearsEdit

Gort was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 21 October 1919.<ref name="maj">Template:London Gazette</ref> He studied at the Staff College, Camberley, was posted Headquarters London District in 1919 and, having been promoted to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 1 January 1921,<ref name="btl-c">Template:London Gazette</ref> he was posted back to the College as an instructor.<ref name="page280"/> He left the Staff College in May 1923.<ref name="staffcollege">Template:London Gazette</ref>

Promoted to colonel in April 1926 (with seniority backdated to 1 January 1925),<ref name="col">Template:London Gazette</ref> he became a staff officer at London District in 1926 and then became a chief instructor at the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness.<ref name="Page281"/> After being posted to Shanghai in January 1927, he gave a report of his findings to the King and the Prince of Wales. He returned home to be a staff officer at Headquarters 4th Infantry Division at Colchester in July 1927.<ref name="Page281"/>

In June 1928, Gort was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.<ref name="CBE">Template:London Gazette</ref> He was appointed commander of the Guards Brigade in 1930, and, after being placed on half-pay in July 1932,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> officer in command of military training in India with the temporary rank of brigadier in 1932.<ref name="brig">Template:London Gazette</ref>

After acquiring a de Havilland Moth aircraft named Henrietta in 1930, Gort became chairman of the Household Brigade Flying Club. On 25 November 1935, he was promoted, at the relatively young age (in peacetime, where promotion was painfully slow) of 49,Template:Sfn to major-general.<ref name="majgen">Template:London Gazette</ref> He returned to the Staff College in 1936 as its Commandant.<ref name="Page281"/>Template:Sfn

In May 1937, Gort was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.<ref name="CB">Template:London Gazette</ref> In September 1937, he became Military Secretary to the War Minister, Leslie Hore-Belisha, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-general.<ref name="lg">Template:London Gazette</ref> On 6 December 1937, as part of a purge by Hore-Belisha of senior officers,<ref name=purge>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Gort was appointed to the Army Council,<ref name="armycouncil">Template:London Gazette</ref> made a general and replaced Field Marshal Sir Cyril Deverell as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS).<ref name="chief">Template:London Gazette</ref> On 1 January 1938, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.<ref name="KCB">Template:London Gazette</ref> His appointment was generally well received in the army, although there was some resentment in his having passed over a number of much older and more senior officers, among them John Dill, Archibald Wavell and Alan Brooke, who would later become an outspoken critic of Gort.Template:Sfn He was not especially highly regarded for his intelligence and so Major General Ronald Adam was appointed to be Gort's Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff.Template:Sfn

On 2 December 1938 Gort submitted a report on the readiness of the British Army. He observed that Nazi Germany, as a result of the acquisition of Czechoslovakia, was in a stronger position than the previous year and that as a result of the government's decision in 1937 to create a "general purpose" army, Britain lacked the necessary forces for the defence of France.Template:Sfn

On 21 December Gort recommended to the Chiefs of Staff that Britain would need to help France defend the Netherlands and Belgium,<ref name=odnb>Template:Harvnb</ref> and that for that purpose the British Army needed complete equipment for four Regular army infantry divisions and two mobile armoured divisions, with the Territorial army armed with training equipment and then war equipment for four divisions.Template:Sfn In response, the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse, noted that such a commitment would be substantial. Gort also attacked as a fallacy the theory of strategic mobility by the use of seapower because in modern war land transport was faster and cheaper than transport by sea. The experience of David Lloyd George's 1917 Alexandretta project "proved that [maritime side-shows] invariably led to vast commitments out of all proportion to the value of the object attained".Template:Sfn If a purely defensive position was taken the Maginot Line would be broken, and the British Army (with anti-aircraft defence) was only getting £277 million out of a total £2,000 million spent on defence.Template:Sfn

Second World WarEdit

File:The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H55.jpg

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Lord Gort and Lady Gort, with staff officers at the Staff College, Camberley, prior to the departure of Lord Gort and his staff to France, November 1939

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Gort was appointed by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, arriving there on 19 September 1939.<ref name="Page282">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Unimpressed by Gort's qualities for command, War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha described Gort as: "utterly brainless and unable to grasp the simplest problem".<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Gort dismissed his subordinates' critiques of the Allies' Plan D, including his former friend Alan Brooke's correct prediction that it would allow the Wehrmacht to outflank the Allied forces, as defeatist.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn The Pillbox affair, as it was known, resulted in Hore-Belisha's dismissal.<ref>

Template:Cite book</ref>

On 25 May 1940, facing overwhelming German forces, Gort decided that he could no longer support the French Army and ordered a retreat by the BEF northwards to the French coast.<ref name="Ellis">Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Sfn On reaching the coast Gort oversaw the en masse retirement of the BEF back to the British Isles, involving the Battle of Dunkirk and the Dunkirk evacuation, while France was defeated and surrendered to Nazi Germany four weeks later.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Some historians have argued that, by these actions, Gort saved the BEF,<ref name="Ellis"/> while others believe that he should have continued to attack the German forces.Template:Sfn

The chaotic rout of the BEF under Gort's command from France convinced Winston Churchill, the newly installed British Prime Minister, that he was undesirable as a field commander, and he was side-lined to non-combatant posts. On his return from France on 1 June 1940 he was appointed an ADC General to George VI. He accompanied Duff Cooper, to Rabat in Morocco, to rally anti-Nazi French cabinet ministers, but was instead temporarily held on his flying boat.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:The British Army in France 1939 O357.jpg

Lord Gort and Lieutenant-General Henry Pownall study a map at GHQ in the Chateau at Habarcq, 26 November 1939.

Gort was appointed Inspector of Training and General Officer Commanding the Home Guard in late 1940.<ref name="Page282"/> He went on trips to Iceland, Orkney and Shetland. He was then appointed Governor of Gibraltar in 1941.<ref name="Page283">Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Sfn In 1943, he succeeded Lord Galway as Colonel Commandant of the Honourable Artillery Company, a position he held until his death.Template:Sfn

File:The British Army in France 1940 F3959.jpg

General Alphonse Joseph Georges of the French Army, accompanied by General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the BEF, inspecting men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 5th Division, at Bethune, France, 23 April 1940.

Gort was appointed Governor of Malta in 1942 and led the defence of the island under siege from enemy forces. The Maltese Government presented a Sword of Honour to him for this role. 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. Gort received his field marshal's baton from the King at Malta on 20 June 1943. Gort was in attendance, along with Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harold Alexander, when Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed the surrender of all Italian forces in Valletta harbour on 29 September 1943.Template:Sfn

Gort was also present when his son-in-law, Major William Sidney, received the Victoria Cross from General Sir Harold Alexander, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Allied Armies in Italy, on 3 March 1944 in Italy.<ref name="Page283"/>

File:RAMAT GAN MAYOR AVRAHAM KRINITZI WITH THE BRITISH HIGH COMMISSIONER GENERAL LORD GORT AT THE MAYOR'S OFFICER IN RAMAT GAN. ביקור הנציב העליון הבריטי, D25-082.jpg

Lord Gort with Avraham Krinitzi mayor of Ramat Gan, April 1945.

Gort was appointed High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan in late 1944.<ref name="Page283"/> He served in this office for only one year. In 1945 he nominated William James Fitzgerald, Chief Justice of Palestine, to enquire into the Jewish-Arab conflict in Jerusalem. Chief Justice Fitzgerald issued his report in which he proposed to divide the city into separate Jewish and Arab Quarters.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Despite growing tensions in Palestine, Gort strove to cultivate good personal relations with both Jews and Arabs, and was greatly admired and respected by the Jewish and Arab communities.<ref name=Hoffman>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:The British Mandate in Palestine 1917-1948 E29943.jpg

Mr and Mrs David Ben-Gurion of the Jewish Agency being presented to Viscount Gort, the new Commissioner of Palestine.

During his time in Palestine, Gort's health deteriorated, and he was suffering from great pain and discomfort in his abdomen. He was in fact suffering from liver cancer, but the doctors he consulted in London were unable to properly diagnose his condition. Gort ruled Palestine at the time that the Jewish insurgency was beginning. Despite his efforts, he was unable to stem the growing confrontation between the Yishuv (Jewish community) and British authorities. On 5 November 1945, he stepped down as High Commissioner and returned to Britain. Commenting on his departure, The Palestine Post wrote that "No High Commissioner in the twenty-five years of British rule in Palestine enjoyed greater popular trust and none repaid it with greater personal kindness."<ref name=Hoffman/>Template:Sfn

DeathEdit

After leaving Palestine and returning to England, Gort was admitted to Guy's Hospital in London, where exploratory surgery revealed that he was dying from inoperable liver cancer.<ref name="Page283"/><ref name=Hoffman/> Already a viscount in the Peerage of Ireland, Gort was created a viscount in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in February 1946. On 31 March 1946, he died in Guy's Hospital at the age of 59 years.Template:Sfn As he did not have a surviving son, the Irish Viscountcy of Gort passed to his brother, Standish Vereker, and the British creation became extinct.<ref name="Page283"/> His body was entombed in the Sidney family vault at St. John the Baptist Church, Penshurst, in the county of Kent.<ref name="Page283"/>

FamilyEdit

Gort married Corinna Katherine Vereker, his second cousin, on 22 February 1911; the couple had two sons and a daughter,<ref name="page279"/> before divorcing (1925).<ref name="Page281">Template:Harvnb</ref> Their elder son, Charles Standish Vereker, was born on 23 February 1912, and served as a lieutenant with the Grenadier Guards, before committing suicide (26 February 1941).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A second son, Jocelyn Cecil Vereker, was born on 27 July 1913, but died before his second birthday.<ref name=mosley2003/> Gort's daughter, Jacqueline Corinne Yvonne Vereker, who was born on 20 October 1914, married (June 1940) The Honourable William Sidney, later the 1st Viscount De L'Isle.<ref name=mosley2003/>