Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

05/07/1940

Date of Discharge

31/12/1941

Place of Enlistment

Sydney NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Also known as Cholmondeley de Chumleigh

Date of Birth

02/10/1880

Place of Birth

Carstairs, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Address (at enlistment)

Naremburn NSW (previously Duntroon ACT from 1911 to 1928)

Occupation

Traveller

Next of Kin

E.L. Warner (cousin), Naremburn NSW

Service Number

N76068

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

Australian Instructional Corps

Harold Chumleigh was born in either 1880 or 1881 in Scotland. He served in the British Army with the 12th Royal Lancers in the Boer War and then in India until 4 January 1907 when he was discharged - he claimed to have purchased his discharge for 21 pounds. Chumleigh joined the Royal Australian Artillery in 1909 in Western Australia and in 1910 attended the School for Instructors at Albury in New South Wales. Chumleigh was posted to the Royal Military College, Duntroon from 1 January 1911 as an instructor in infantry drill, musketry and signalling. He later became Regimental Sergeant Major to the Corps of Staff Cadets, a role he filled until 1928, instructing dozens of cadets who would serve in both world wars. In May 1913 Chumleigh married Alice Mayo from Majura.

In 1928 he transferred to Brisbane and served as Regimental Sergeant Major to the 26th Battalion. He spent time in Townsville as well before moving to Sydney. In 1934 his wife was granted a divorce on the grounds of desertion and adultery as Chumleigh was living with another woman he called his 'wife'. He had been discharged in November 1930 due to a reduction in establishment and placed on the Army's retired list with the honorary rank of lieutenant.

After enlisting with the 2nd Garrison Battalion in July 1940, Chumleigh was seconded to the Australian Instructional Corps until being discharged at the end of 1941. He attempted to enlist in the Volunteer Defence Corps in 1943 but was rejected because he was "overage". This time he claimed he was a Sub-Inspector with the Commonwealth Police and had married Elsie Louise Warner in 1937. No record of the marriage exists.

Chumleigh did marry again, in 1955 to Janet Owen. He died in Katoomba NSW on 3 November 1970.

WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
Wendy McLennan, 'The Mayo Connection', 1996
NAA RecordSearch
Australian Dictionary of Biography online
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/adbonline.htm (entry for 'Chumleigh, Harold Vere')
The Canberra Times - 28 June 1934
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
A.W. Edwards, 'My War Diary', 1920 (AWM PR89/050)