John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker VC GCB CBE DSO** MVO MC

b. 10/07/1886 Westminster, London. d. 31/03/1946 Southwark, London.

John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort (1886-1946) was born on 10th July 1886 at 24 Chesham Place, London. He was commonly known as Jack and later as Tiger in the Army. His father, John Gage Prendergast Vereker, born in Westminster, London, was educated at Harrow School. He served as a captain in 4th Brigade, South Irish Division, Royal Artillery. He was also acting British Consul at Cherbourg, France in 1876, Chairman of the Durham Diocesan Church Defence Committee and JP for County Durham and the Isle of Wight. He married Eleanor Surtees on 28th January 1885 at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, London. John senior later became 5th Viscount Gort of Limerick and Baron Kiltarton of Gort, County Galway, Ireland in 1900. He left over £75,000 (over £10 million in today’s money) in his will. John junior had one sibling, a brother called Standish Robert Gage Prendergast Vereker.

John S S P Vereker
VC GCB CBE DSO** MVO MC

John was educated at Malvern Link Preparatory School, Great Malvern, Worcestershire, where Bernard Warburton-Lee VC, was also a pupil in 1906, and at Harrow School. He was in Head Master’s House from 1900-03, where he was well liked. He was a member of Harrow Army Class and passed to go to Sandhurst. He then succeeded his father to the title of 6th Viscount Gort on 15th August 1902.

He entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in January 1904. He was an exceptionally keen cadet. He was once thrown into the Basingstoke Canal for being too serious by his fellow officers. He was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards on 16th August 1905 and was promoted lieutenant on 1st April 1907. He rode Hooligan III to victory in the Manners Cup steeplechase for Grenadier Guards officers in 1910. He was appointed Member of the Royal Victorian Order for commanding the coffin party at the funeral of King Edward VII on 20th May 1910.

In November 1910 Gort visited his uncle, Jeffrey Edward Prendergast Vereker, a retired British army major and youngest son of the 4th Viscount Gort in Kenora, Ontario. During a moose hunting trip, Gort slipped off a large boulder and his rifle discharged, wounding his guide, William Prettie. Prettie later died of his wound in Winnipeg. Viscount Gort immediately returned to England.

On 22nd February 1911, Gort married Corinna Vereker, a second cousin; they had two sons and a daughter. They divorced in 1925. Their eldest son, Charles Standish, was born on 23rd February 1912 and died on 26th February 1941 while serving as a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards and is buried at Blandford Forum in Dorset. Their second son, Jocelyn Cecil, was born on 27th July 1913 but died before his second birthday. Their daughter, Jacqueline Corinne Yvonne, born on 20th October 1914, married The Honourable William Sidney VC (later the 1st Viscount De L’Isle) in June 1940.

John was ADC to GOC London District, Major General Sir Francis Lloyd KCB CVO DSO, from 3rd September 1913. However, on the outbreak of World War I he saw an opportunity to put all his training into action and did not want to sit out the war at home.

On 5th August 1914, Gort was promoted to captain. He went to France with the British Expeditionary Force and fought on the Western Front, taking part in the retreat from Mons in August 1914. He became a staff officer with the First Army in December 1914 and then became Brigade Major of the 4th (Guards) Brigade in April 1915. He was awarded the Military Cross in June 1915. Promoted to the brevet rank of major in June 1916, he became a staff officer at the Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force and fought at the Battle of the Somme throughout the Autumn of 1916. He was given the acting rank of lieutenant colonel in April 1917 on appointment as Commanding Officer of 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards and, having been awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in June 1917, he led his battalion at the Battle of Passchendaele, earning a Bar to his DSO in September 1917. He would be awarded a second Bar to his DSO for his action in the advance on the Canal du Nord on 11th/12th September 1918. He led his Battalion forward at night to relieve a battalion that had failed to take its objective. He personally made a reconnaissance of the line ahead and got his men to the objective before dawn. For the next three days he made hazardous forward reconnaissances and advanced the Battalion over 700m to occupy the canal bank.

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 awhile [sic], 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.

He was presented with his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 13th December 1918. During the course of the war, he was Mentioned in Despatches eight times.

After the war Lord Gort had a varied career. In 1919 he attended the Staff College at Camberley, returning as an instructor in 1921. After a spell with his regiment he became chief instructor at the senior officer’s school at Sheerness in 1926, at which point he was promoted to colonel. He was awarded the CBE in 1928. In 1930 he was promoted to command the Grenadier Guards, in 1932 he became director of military training in India, and in 1936 he returned to the Staff Collage again, as commandant. In 1937 he was awarded the CB (Military Division).

Later the same year Lord Gort began the sudden and somewhat unexpected rise that would end with his appointment to command the B.E.F. Early in the year he was appointed military secretary to the secretary of state for war, Leslie Hore-Belisha, who was looking for a younger officer to revitalise the high command. This was followed later in the year by promotion to the most important post in the army, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He was appointed above hundreds of more senior men, and to support this move was also promoted two grades, to full General. He was appointed KCB (Military Division) on 1st January 1938.

Gort commanded the British Expeditionary Force from 1939-40 and he oversaw the evacuation from Dunkirk. After his return to Britain, he was made ADC to King George VI, and then held the position of Governor of Gibraltar (1941-42), and Governor of Malta (1942-44). On 1st January 1943 he was promoted to field marshal and received his baton from King George VI in Malta on 20th June. He also received an honorary law degree from the University of Malta. On 30th October 1944 he was appointed High Commissioner and C-in-C Palestine and High Commissioner for Trans-Jordan, replacing Sir Harold Alfred MacMichael. By this time he was suffering from liver cancer and collapsed at Government House on 5th November 1945, during a meeting with Field Marshals Montgomery and Alanbrooke. He resigned his post the next day.

He was then created 1st Viscount Gort of Hamsterley, County Durham on 15th February 1946. He was a Freemason. He attended the 1920 VC Garden Party, the 1929 VC Dinner at the House of Lords.

John died at Guy’s Hospital in London on 31st March 1946, leaving an estate worth £8 million in today’s money. His funeral, with full military honours, was held at St John the Baptist Church, Penshurst, Kent. A Guard of Honour was mounted by the Grenadier Guards and Drummers of the Regiment sounded the Last Post and Reveille. The pallbearers were Field Marshal the Earl of Cavan, General Sir Andrew Thorne, General Sir George Jeffreys, General Sir Charles Lloyd, Lieutenant General Sir Oliver Leese, Brigadier General the Earl of Gowrie VC, Brigadier GEC Rasch and Lieutenant Colonel NVC Dalrymple-Hamilton. He is buried in the family vault at St John the Baptist Church. A memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey on 10th April 1946, attended by the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee and Leader of the Opposition, Sir Winston Churchill.

John is commemorated in many places – Gort Place in Durham, Gort Road in Bournemouth, Dorset, on the Harrow VC Memorial, on the Honours Board at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, named on the Malvern Link Prep School Roll of Honour, a plaque in the Crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, a blue plaque at his former home in Belgrave Square, London, on the Freemason’s Memorial in Covent Garden, and has two VC commemorative stones placed at the Royal London Yacht Club in Cowes, Isle of Wight, and at Victoria Embankment Gardens, London.

In addition to the VC, he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (Military), Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Military), Knight of Justice of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, DSO with Two Bars, Member of the Royal Victorian Order, Military Cross, 1914 Star with Mons clasp, British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19 with Mentioned in Despatches oakleaf, General Service Medal 1918-62 with clasp “Palestine 1945-48”, 1939-45 Star, Africa Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-45, George V Coronation Medal 1911, George V Silver Jubilee Medal 1935, George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and the French Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour. The medals are believed to be still with the family.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: NOT PUBLICLY HELD.

BURIAL LOCATION: SIDNEY FAMILY VAULT, ST JOHN THE BAPTIST, PENSHURST, KENT.