Henry George Chauvel GCMG KCB (1865 - 1945)

Born 16 Apr 1865 in Tabulam, New South Wales (Australia)

Ancestors

Husband of Sybil Campbell (Keith-Jopp) Chauvel — married 16 Jun 1906 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Descendants

Died 4 Mar 1945 at age 79 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB is Notable.

General Sir Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB was a senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force who fought at Gallipoli and in the Sinai and Palestine Campaigns during the First World War. He was the first Australian to attain the rank of Lieutenant General and later General, and the first to lead a corps. As commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, he was responsible for one of the most decisive victories and fastest pursuits in military history. Harry Chauvel's name is synonymous with the Australian Light Horse.

Formative years

Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB is the descendant of a Huguenot emigrant.

Born Henry George "Harry" Chauvel on 16th April 1865 at Tabulam, New South Wales (Australia), he was a son of grazier, Charles Henry Edward Chauvel, and his wife, Fanny James. ^[1] The Chauvels were descended from a French Huguenot family who fled France for England in 1685. Harry was christened on 21st September 1865 at Grafton, New South Wales. His father's brother and sister were the sponsors. ^[2] He was educated at Toowoomba Grammar School, East Toowoomba, Queensland. ^[3]

Harry grew up in rural settings: horses, guns, hard work ...

Harry's father established a 96,000-acre station at Tabulam, on the Clarence River near Kyogle in the north of New South Wales, on which the family raised 12,000 head of cattle and 320 horses. Harry was commissioned in 1886 as a Second Lieutenant in the Upper Clarence Light Horse, a Militia unit organised by his father. Following a series of severe droughts in northern New South Wales, the property was sold in 1888, debts cleared, and a 'small' 12,000-acre property purchased at Canning Downs on the Darling Downs in Queensland. After the family moved to Queensland Harry was commissioned in the Queensland Mounted Infantry in 1890 (at the time different colonies meant separate armies). ^[3]

Boer War

Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Australian Army 1899-1901
Queensland Mounted Infantry

In 1899, Captain Chauvel commanded one of two companies of the 2nd Queensland Mounted Infantry (QMI) that were part of Queensland's early contribution to the Boer War. ^[4] For his part in the fighting in South Africa with the QMI, Chauvel was Mentioned in Despatches, and on 19th April 1901 appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). ^[5]

Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Australian Army 1902-1902
7th Commonwealth Light Horse

Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Harry completed a second tour in 1902 as commanding officer of the 7th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse. ^[6] He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with four Clasps for his service in the war. ^[3]

What soldiers do between wars

As one of the senior and most experienced field officers of the Commonwealth Horse, Harry was ideally placed when it came time to discuss the make-up of the new Commonwealth Military Force. He recommended that Australian troops improve their discipline in the field, called for stronger leadership skills amongst officers, and emphasised the need for better organisation for supply and for timely and efficient medical evacuation. The battalions of the various Colonial Military Forces cast aside their Mounted Infantry, Mounted Rifles, and Bushmen titles and adopted the single name, the Light Horse (although NSW retained their Lancers).^[3]

While stationed in Brisbane, Harry and his friend and colleague, Major (later General Sir) Brudenell White, regularly played tennis at the Newmarket home of sisters, 'Dora' and Sibyl Jopp. Harry became engaged to Sibyl in January 1906, and they were married on 16th June 1906 in All Saints' Church of England (Anglican Church), Wickham Terrace, Brisbane. ^[7]

The Great War

Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB is an Anzac who served in World War One.

Promoted to Colonel in 1913, Harry was appointed Australian representative on the Imperial General Staff, however, the war broke out while he was en route to the United Kingdom. He had embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A3 Orvieto on 21st October 1914. Once in England, he arranged for the Australian Imperial Force to be diverted to Egypt, where he joined his new command, the 1st Light Horse Brigade, in December 1914 on promotion to Brigadier General. In May 1915, the brigade was sent, dismounted, to Gallipoli, where Harry assumed responsibility for some of the most dangerous parts of the line. He took charge of the 1st Division that November. ^[3] His role in the Gallipoli campaign as a whole was recognised on 14th January 1916 through his appointment as Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). ^[8]

In March 1916, following the evacuation of Gallipoli and re-structure due to the doubling of the AIF, Major General Chauvel was appointed commander of the ANZAC Mounted Division in the Middle East, gaining victories in the Battle of Romani in August and the Battle of Magdhaba in December, and nearly winning the First Battle of Gaza in March 1917; with his soldiers penetrating the town he was ordered to withdraw! On 19th January 1917 Harry was created Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in recognition of his leadership of the division.^[9] The following month, he took over the Desert Column, later known as the Desert Mounted Corps, thereby becoming the first Australian to command a corps, and the first Australian to reach the rank of Lieutenant General. At Beersheba in October 1917,^[10] his light horse captured the town and its vital water supply in one of history's last great cavalry charges. It has been said that few battles have been won in such spectacular fashion. He followed up this victory with one of the fastest pursuits in military history. For the decisive Beersheba victory, and the subsequent capture of Jerusalem, Harry was Mentioned in Despatches twice more, and created Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 11th April 1918. ^[11] For his services as commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, Harry received a rare honour, being upgraded to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in June 1919. ^[12] In addition, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre avec Palme by the President of France, appointed to the Order of the Nile (2nd Class) by the Sultan of Egypt and was Mentioned in Despatches for the 11th time in the war. ^[3]

Between wars, once more

In 1919, Sir Harry Chauvel was appointed Inspector General of the Australian Military Force. He was concurrently Chief of the General Staff from 1923, succeeding his old tennis partner, Sir Brudenell White, until retirement beckoned in 1930; concluding an illustrious military career of 46 years (six decades!). In November 1929, he became the first Australian to be promoted to the rank of General.

Harry displayed his faith through selfless endeavour

Sir Harry was for many years chairman of the trustees of the Australian and Victorian War Memorials, a senior patron of Melbourne Legacy, and active in the work of the Australian Red Cross and the Young Men's Christian Association. On the eve of Anzac Day 1935, one newspaper wrote that he 'has come by this quiet work in the interests of returned men to be regarded as their peace time leader'. Such work was but one manifestation of the religious faith on which his life had been built and which was recognised by his church in 1930, when he was made a lay canon of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne. Sir Harry Chauvel frequently led Melbourne ANZAC Day Parades but resigned from the leadership of the march in 1938 in protest against the decision by the Returned and Services League of Australia to change the form of service at the Shrine from Christian to secular. ^[3]

Second World War

Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Australian Army Volunteer Defence Corps 1939-45
Inspector in Chief

At the outset of the Second World War, at 74 years of age, Sir Harry was recalled to duty as Inspector in Chief of the Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC). ^[13] At its peak, in 1942, the VDC boasted a strength of more than 100,000 men, mostly regarded as either too old or infirm to be 'real soldiers'. Nevertheless, these 100,000 mostly part-timers freed up 'able-bodied' men for fulltime, overseas service.

During this final war, Sir Harry's older son Ian served as staff officer in the Italian campaign, while younger son Edward was posted to New Guinea to learn about jungle warfare from the Australian Army. The two men had resigned their commissions in the Australian Army in 1930 and 1932 respectively, and accepted commissions in cavalry regiments of the British Indian Army. His younger daughter Eve joined the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service and spent a day in a lifeboat in the North Atlantic after her ship was torpedoed by a U-Boat. Son-in-law Tom Mitchell, husband of older daughter, author Elyne, was captured by the Japanese in the Battle of Singapore and spent the following three and a half years in cruel captivity. ^[3]

On 4th March 1945 in Melbourne, Sir Harry Chauvel passed away within sight of Allied victory both in Europe and the Pacific, and his 80th birthday. ^[14] He was given a state funeral service in St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, and is buried in Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Victoria.

Legacy

• Chauvel's daughter, Elyne Mitchell, wrote a number of non-fiction works about her father and his corps, including The Lighthorsemen. Elyne also wrote The Man from Snowy River, the book upon which the 1980s film of that name was made.^[15]
• in his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) provided a wildly inaccurate version of Chauvel. Historian Charles Bean noted that 'this wise, good and considerate commander was far from the stupid martinet that readers of Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom might infer'.^[15]
• in 1921, Harry Chauvel wrote the Foreword for Lieutenant Colonel Olden's book The Story of the Tenth Light Horse: the Regiment of Western Australia.^[15]
• Chauvel is commemorated in a bronze plaque in St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne.^[15]
• a memorial window stands in the chapel of the Royal Military College, Duntroon.^[15]
• portraits of Chauvel are held by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the Naval and Military Club in Melbourne, and the Imperial War Museum in London.^[16][17][18]
• his sword is in Christ Church, South Yarra and his uniform is on display in the Australian War Memorial.^[15]
• Chauvel Street, North Ryde, New South Wales is named in his honour.^[15]
• Chauvel's nephew, Charles Chauvel, became a well-known film director, whose films included Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940), about the Battle of Beersheba.
• Harry Chauvel was portrayed by Bill Kerr in the film The Lighthorsemen (1987), which covered the exploits of an Australian cavalry regiment during the Battle of Beersheba.

Honours and Awards

neck ribbons:

• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
• Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
• Grand Officer of the Order of the Nile (Egypt)

medal set:

• Queen's South Africa Medal with four Clasps
• 1914-1915 Star
• British War Medal
• Victory Medal with Mentioned in Despatches oak leaf Clasp
• King George VI Coronation Medal
• Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
• Croix de Guerre avec Palme (France)

Sources

1. ↑ New South Wales Birth Index #14745/1865
2. ↑ Chauvel Bible; accessed 27 Jul 2018
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7} Hill, A J. Chauvel, Sir Henry George (Harry) (1865–1945). Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1979; accessed online 30 May 2018
4. ↑ Australian War Memorial: Captain Henry Chauvel; accessed 14 Apr 2020
5. ↑ Australian Honours: CMG; accessed 27 Jun 2019
6. ↑ Australian War Memorial: Lieutenant Colonel Henry George Chauvel CMG; accessed 14 Apr 2020
7. ↑ Queensland Marriage Index #B4698/1906
8. ↑ Australian Honours: CB; accessed 27 Jun 2019
9. ↑ Australian Honours: KCMG; accessed 27 Jun 2019
10. ↑ Visit VWMA Battle of Beersheba (World War 1, November 1917)
11. ↑ Australian Honours: KCB; accessed 27 Jun 2019
12. ↑ Australian Honours: GCMG; accessed 27 Jun 2019
13. ↑ Australian War Memorial: General Henry George (Harry) Chauvel; accessed 14 Apr 2020
14. ↑ Victoria Death Index #2036/1945
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6} Wikipedia profile: Harry Chauvel; accessed 30 May 2018
16. ↑ Australian War Memorial 1926 painting by H Septimus Power of Leaders of the Australian Light Horse in Palestine, 1918
17. ↑ AWM portrait of Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvelby James Quinn (1919)
18. ↑ AWM photo: Informal portrait of General Sir H G Chauvel GOC, 1 Nov 1917with: Brigadier General Richard Howard-Vyse

See also

• Virtual War Memorial Australia: Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB, with photo.

• Henry George CHAUVEL from the AIF PROJECT website first accessed online on the 17th of April, 2023.