Page 87 - They Also Served

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John Gort 1905.
John Standish Surtees Prendergast
Vereker Gort was born in London on
10th July 1886. Whilst at Harrow
School, his father died, and he inherited
the family title of 6th Viscount Gort.
Commissioned from Sandhurst into the
Grenadier Guards in August 1905, he
commanded the pallbearer detachment
for the funeral of King Edward VII in
1910, for which he was made an MVO.
A captain in 1914, he deployed with the
1st Battalion to the Western Front and
took part in the retreat from Mons before becoming brigade-major of the 4th (Guards) Brigade. Gort was awarded the MC in June 1915 for his work in the headquarters, as many early awards were for staff work (one such recipient was the future King Edward VIII).
Awarded a DSO for further staff work during the Battle of the Somme, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and took command of 4th Grenadiers. A bar to the DSO followed in September 1917 for command during the Battle of Passchendaele then, commanding 1st Grenadiers, he was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry crossing the Canal du Nord. The VC citation, probably one of the finest to emerge from the entire war, resulted in him being known as ‘Tiger’ Gort. Soon after the armistice, Gort was awarded a second bar to the DSO; he was also MiD eight times. Having a magnificent war record as both a leader and staff officer, Gort (only a substantive captain in 1919) was marked for rapid promotion, commanding the Guards Brigade in 1930 and commandant, Staff College, Camberley, in 1936. Promoted to lieutenant- general, he became military secretary to the war-minister, Leslie Hore-Belisha. Soon afterwards, with war clouds on the horizon, many older senior officers were retired and Gort was promoted to general and chief of the general staff.
Upon the outbreak of war, the prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, appointed Gort as commander of the BEF. In the last weeks of 1939, Hore-Belisha visited the BEF and Gort, who had a robust and very ‘front line’ sense of humour, made the flamboyant and immaculately dressed minister sleep in a ditch at his tactical headquarters. The
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