page_title: Harry Chauvel
section_title: Between the wars
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Chauvel / Later life / Between the wars
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial view of the dedication ceremony for the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, Australia, taken on 11 November, 1934. Over 300,000 people attended, representing approximately a third of Melbourne's population at the time.
context_page_description: General Sir Henry George Chauvel, GCMG, KCB 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.
  The son of a grazier, Chauvel was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Upper Clarence Light Horse, a unit organised by his father, in 1886. After the family moved to Queensland he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Queensland Mounted Infantry in 1890, and saw service during the 1891 Australian shearers' strike. He became a regular officer in 1896, and went to the United Kingdom as part of the Queensland contingent for the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. In 1899 he commanded one of two companies of Queensland Mounted Infantry that were Queensland's initial contribution to the Boer War. After the war, he was closely involved with the training of the Australian Light Horse.
context_section_description: Chauvel's AIF appointment was terminated on 9 December 1919, and the next day he was appointed Inspector General, the Army's most senior post, which he held until 1930. The office of Inspector General had been created as an auditor who provided annual reports to the Council of Defence. In the event of war, it was intended that the Inspector General would become the Commander in Chief with the Military Board as his general staff. Chauvel's annual reports tended to emphasise the parlous state of the nation's defences. He warned, for example, that if war came, soldiers would "be subject to the unfair handicap and the certainty of increased loss of life which inferiority in armament and shortage of ammunition must inevitability entail". Looking back from the perspective of the Second World War, historian Gavin Long noted that Chauvel's annual reports were "a series of wise and penetrating examinations of Australian military problems of which, however, little notice was taken".
  In February 1920, Chauvel was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant general, back-dated to 31 December 1919. In January 1920, he chaired a committee to examine the future structure of the army. The committee's recommendations proved to be next to impossible to implement in the face of defence cuts that were imposed in 1920 and 1922. On Lieutenant General Brudenell White's retirement as Chief of the General Staff in 1923, that post was divided into two, with Chauvel becoming 1st Chief of the General Staff as well as Inspector General, while Brigadier General Thomas Blamey became 2nd Chief of the General Staff. Chauvel also served as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, being the senior of the three service chiefs. In November 1929, he became the first Australian to be promoted to the rank of general. He attempted to maintain the Army's structure in the face of short-sighted politicians intent on cutting expenditure. As a result, the Army became increasingly hollow, retaining the form of a large force without the substance. When conscription was abolished by Prime Minister James Scullin's government in 1929, it was left up to Chauvel to attempt to make the new volunteer system work. He finally retired in April 1930.
  Chauvel's sons Ian and Edward resigned their commissions in the Australian Army in 1930 and 1932 respectively, and accepted commissions in cavalry regiments of the British Indian Army. His daughter Elyne married Thomas Walter Mitchell, a grazier. Chauvel became a frequent visitor to their property "Towong Hill" near Corryong, Victoria. He was staying at Towong Hill during the Black Friday Bushfires of 1939. When the property was threatened by fire, he directed the firefighting effort, and at one point climbed a tree close to the house to hack away burning branches.
  The dedication of the Shrine of Remembrance in 1934 saw a series of reunions. Ian and Edward arrived from India on leave, Alexander Godley came from Britain, and Richard Howard-Vyse as chief of staff to Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. In 1937, Chauvel travelled to the United Kingdom as head of the Australian contingent for the coronation of King George VI, where he was welcomed by Chetwode and Howard-Vyse. Chauvel had the contingent dressed as light horsemen, wearing emu plumes, bandoliers and spurs. When the Dominion troops assembled at Buckingham Palace to receive their King George VI Coronation Medals, Chauvel led the parade, with Howard-Vyse as his chief of staff. On the way back, the contingent visited France, where ceremonies were held at the Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial and the Arc de Triomphe. Chauvel frequently led Anzac Day parades through Melbourne but resigned from the leadership of the march in 1938 in protest against a decision by the Returned and Services League of Australia to change the form of service at the Shrine from a Christian to a secular one.
caption: The dedication ceremony for the Shrine of Remembrance. Over 300,000 people were in attendance, a figure that was approximately a third of Melbourne's population at the time.
exif: {}