VISCOUNT GORT A MAN’S MAN

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 307, 29 December 1939, Page 9

VISCOUNT GORT A MAN’S MAN

INCIDENTS IN FRANCE LONDON. An incident revealing the popularity of Viscount Gort, V.C., Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in France, is reported by a war correspondent. At a busy road junction in a small French town there was a considerable jam which threatened to become complete at any moment. Suddenly a big camouflaged private car with a Union Jack fluttering from the small mast over the bonnet swept down the road, but eventually had to stop like all the rest. In a moment the back door was flung open and a broad-shouldered, sturdy soldier of medium height walked quickly to the centre of the congestion. He gave one or two sharp directions, which acted like an electric current on the sluggish stream of traffic, and everything was on the move again. He stood for a minute making sure that all was going smoothly, and then stepped back into his car and drove on. The officer was Lord Gort. This incident is not so surprising to the troops in France as one might imagine. They know now something of the dynamic energy of the man who leads them. His mere presence will apparently make everything move a little faster and more efficiently. No Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in the field could ever have had more concern for his men than “Tiger” Gort. It i s the little things which come to light accidentally that reveal the human side of the man and “get under the skin” of the Tommies. Twice in the last week or two the Commander-in-Chief’s car, with its well-known Union Jack, has pulled up outbidp a small house in a muddy village. Insid* were British soldiers lying sick or injured. The village is not on a main road, but Lord Gort, passing somewhere near it, had remembered these casualties of the war and turned aside to visit them. “He was the best visitor we have had here. Every word he said to the men showed his interest in them as men and not as patients in a casualty clearing station.” That was the tribute paid to the Commander-in-Chief by the major in charge of the station. From the moment when he gets up to a breakfast of bacon and eggs—l may add that there is usually porridge as well—until he goes to bed, very often after midnight, “Tiger” is a “man’s man,” and the troops know it and love him for it.