John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort
John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort (July 10, 1886 - March 1946), commonly known as Lord Gort, 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 London and grew up in County Durham. He was educated at Harrow School and then the Royal Military College. He succeeded his father to the family title in 1902 and he was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards in 1905.
By 1914 he had reached the rank of Captain. He fought on the Western Front, earning the Military Cross. In 1918 as a Lieutenant Colonel he was awarded the Victoria Cross at the Canal du Nord near Flesquieres. He was mentioned in dispatches nine times and also won the Distinguished Service Order and two bars.
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 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.
