Chapter 19 – Henry Chauvel

An account of Australian Colonel Henry “Harry” Chauvel’s concerns about the English army campsites at Salisbury Plain, and Sir George Reid’s willingness to “breach all the rules which British officialdom hedges its leaders” whilst “under his camouflage of genial buffoonery” is provided by Charles Bean in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol I, pp 110-112. A more detailed account is provided by Peter Plowman in Voyage to Gallipoli , pp 201-205. Each account claims that Lord Kitchener was directly influenced by Reid’s arguments and agreed to send the Australian and New Zealand troops to Egypt as a result.