Sir Harry ChauvelPrint Page

A plaque commemorates Sir Harry Chauvel, commander of the Desert Mounted Corps during World War One and lay canon of the cathedral. 

General Sir Henry George Chauvel, GCMG,KCB (16 April 1865 – 4 March 1945), more usually known as Sir Harry Chauvel, was a senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force who fought at Gallipoli and during the Sinai and palestine Campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of 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.

Retirement was for Chauvel a fruitful experience; directorships in three important companies gave him new interests and he now had time for ex-servicemen's causes. He 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 Chauvel 'has come by his 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 recognized by his Church when he was made a lay canon of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, in 1930.

Ex-servicemen gathered in St. Paul's Cathedral yesterday for the unveiling and dedication of a memorial tablet to the late General Sir Harry Chauvel, commander of the Desert Mounted Corps in Syria in the first world war. The bronze tablet, given by the Victorian branch of the R.S.L., was unveiled by the State president (Mr. N. D. Wilson) and dedicated by Archbishop Booth. The lesson was read by the Director-General of Recruiting (Lieutenant-General Sir Horace Robertson). In his address, Archbishop Booth paid tribute to the leadership, loyalty and courage of General Chauvel, whose career, he said, was one of which Australia could be proud.
Age (Melbourne), 25 July 1952.

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