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.[7] While studying at Trinity College, Cambridge he was initiated into Isaac Newton University Lodge.[8]
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Although hit in two places in the shoulder by the bursting of a shell early in the day and in great pain, he refused to leave his battalion, and personally superintended the consolidation subsequent to a successful attack. He remained with them until 5 p.m. on the following day, when he was ordered to come out and have his wounds dressed. His conduct set a very fine example of self-sacrifice, and was of great value in maintaining the high morale and offensive spirit of his battalion.
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.[17]
Victoria Cross citation
Captain (Brevet Major, Acting Lieutenant-Colonel), 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards
Citation: For most conspicuous bravery, skilful leading and devotion to duty during the attack of the Guards Division on 27th September 1918, across the Canal du Nord, near Flesquieres, when in command of the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, the leading battalion of the 3rd Guards Brigade.
Under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire he led his battalion with great skill and determination to the "forming-up" ground, where very severe fire from artillery and machine guns was again encountered.
Although wounded, he quickly grasped the situation, directed a platoon to proceed down a sunken road to make a flanking attack, and, under terrific fire, went across open ground to obtain the assistance of a Tank, which he personally led and directed to the best possible advantage. While thus fearlessly exposing himself, he was again severely wounded by a shell. Notwithstanding considerable loss of blood, after lying on a stretcher for a while, he insisted on getting up and personally directing the further attack. By his magnificent example of devotion to duty and utter disregard of personal safety all ranks were inspired to exert themselves to the utmost, and the attack resulted in the capture of over 200 prisoners, two batteries of field guns and numerous machine guns. Lt.-Col. Viscount Gort then proceeded to organise the defence of the captured position until he collapsed; even then he refused to leave the field until he had seen the "success signal" go up on the final objective.
The successful advance of the battalion was mainly due to the valour, devotion and leadership of this very gallant officer.[17]
Subsequent to this he became known as "Tiger" Gort.[18] He won a second Bar to his DSO in January 1919, with the citation reading:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in command of his battalion. He led his men up by night to relieve a battalion which had attacked and failed to reach its objective. Regardless of danger he personally reconnoitred the line ahead of his troops, and got them on to the objective before dawn. During the three following days he again made forward reconnaissances, and leading his battalion gradually on, advanced the line 800 yards and gained a canal bank. It is impossible to speak too highly of this officer's initiative.[19]
Gort was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 21 October 1919.[20] 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,[21] he was posted back to the College as an instructor.[11] He left the Staff College in May 1923.[22]
Promoted to colonel in April 1926 (with seniority backdated to 1 January 1925),[23] he became a staff officer at London District in 1926 and then became a chief instructor at the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness.[24] 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.[24]
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,[27] to major-general.[28] He returned to the Staff College in 1936 as its Commandant.[24][27]
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.[35]
On 21 December Gort recommended to the Chiefs of Staff that Britain would need to help France defend the Netherlands and Belgium,[36] 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.[37] 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".[38] 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.[39]
Second World War
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.[40]
Unimpressed by Gort's qualities for command, War MinisterLeslie Hore-Belisha described Gort as: "utterly brainless and unable to grasp the simplest problem".[41] 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.[42][43] The Pillbox affair, as it was known, resulted in Hore-Belisha's dismissal.[44]
Some historians have argued that, by these actions, Gort saved the BEF,[45] while others believe that he should have continued to attack the German forces.[49]
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.[50]
Lord Gort and Lieutenant-General Henry Pownall study a map at GHQ in the Chateau at Habarcq, 26 November 1939.
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.[54]
Gort was appointed High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan in late 1944.[51] 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.[55] 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.[56]
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."[56][57]
Death
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.[51][56] 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.[57] 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.[51] His body was entombed in the Sidney family vault at St. John the Baptist Church, Penshurst, in the county of Kent.[51]
Family
Gort married Corinna Katherine Vereker, his second cousin, on 22 February 1911; the couple had two sons and a daughter,[6] before divorcing (1925).[24] 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).[58] A second son, Jocelyn Cecil Vereker, was born on 27 July 1913, but died before his second birthday.[2] 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.[2]
Danchev, Alex; Todman, Daniel, eds. (2001) [First published 1957]. War Diaries 1939–1945 Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke. University of California Press. ISBN0-520-23301-8.
Gliddon, Gerald (2000). VCs of the First World War - The Final Days 1918. Sutton Publishing. ISBN0-7509-2485-3.
Harvey, David (1999). Monuments to Courage : Victoria Cross Headstones and Memorials. Vol.2, 1917–1982. Kevin & Kay Patience. OCLC59437300.
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