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Hore-Belisha became War Secretary. He made Gort his military secretary, later lifted him over the heads of 50 others to the office of Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He was a part of Hore-Belisha's "rejuvenation" of the army. A big man with a square face, whose hats generally looked too small for him, he was known to his men as the "Fat Boy." Actually muscular and fit as a fiddle, he expected his subordinates to keep the same way, would often give an aide a strenuous tour of duty just to get the flesh off him. Mounted on a white charger, Gort was a heroic figure as Commander in Chief of the British Army on the disastrous field of France. He shone as a systematic organizer rather than as a brilliant tactician. When he returned to England from the shambles of Dunkirk he was given the job of organizing England for the defense of her soil from the invasion that appeared about to engulf her.
When that danger was past, Gort was sent to Gibraltar, where attack again appeared to be impending. It was from Gibraltar that he was moved to beleaguered Malta. A nonsmoker, an austere man, Gort is nevertheless a sherry connoisseur. Regretfully he left behind him at Gib a decorated sherry cask presented by his staff.
Where Gort is now he will have no use for decorated casks. His white charger is now a bicycle on which he wheels himself around rubble-strewn streets where busses no longer run. Petrol is too precious to use even in a general's automobile. Gort's post will require all his attention, all his talents, all the fortitude of his quarter of a million people.
In September, on behalf of his King, Gort presented the Maltese with the George Cross. The citation: for gallant endurance. Chief Justice Borg accepted the medal and deposited it under a plinth in the main square opposite an old palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of St. John. Over the plinth the King's Own Malta Regiment took up solemn sentry duty. Stoically the Maltese burrowed into their ancient island. Grimly, for the power and the glory and for Christendom, the island of the Knights fought on.