John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort
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John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort (VC, GCB, CBE, DSO & 2 Bars, MVO, MC) (July 10, 1886 - March 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.
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First World War
By 1914 he had reached the rank of Captain. He fought on the Western Front, earning the Military Cross. He was mentioned in dispatches nine times and also won the 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.
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. In 1939 at the outbreak of war he was given command of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, arriving on September 19 1939. The disposition of the BEF was attacked, in hindsight, as too conventional and at the time, chiefly due to lack of any kind of defensive works, but he reacted efficiently to the ensuing crisis. Following the Phony War, the German break-through in the Ardennes split the Anglo-French forces. Forced northwards, the BEF had to be evacuated from France during the Battle of Dunkirk.
Back in England, he served in various positions for the duration of the war. Gort was made an aide to King George VI in 1940. He went on to serve as Governor of Gibraltar (1941-1942) then Malta (1942-1944) and 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 children, 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, VC.
| Preceded by: Sir Cyril Deverell | Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1937–1939 | Succeeded by: Sir Edmund Ironside
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