In recognition of his distinguished career as a soldier and his outstanding services and brilliant leadership in the dark days of the Dunkirk evacuation and of the Burma campaign and later as Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Command, and as Supreme Allied Commander for the Mediterranean theatre of war in the critical times there; in testimony of the honour and esteem in which he is held by the community and of their gratitude for his arduous labours and his accomplishments in the momentous struggle for freedom.
"It's not only in the military field that your countrymen have excelled. Those who know your history would expect that. You have contributed besides soldiers, sailors and airmen, workers who have forged and supplied us with the weapons of war, and we fighting men would like to pay a special tribute to your men and women who toiled in workshop, factory and shipyard.
You gave us the tools not only to fight with, but to win with. This co-operation between the fighting man on the front and the citizen worker at home proved a battle-winning factor."