Corps Commander's Standard : Lieutenant General H G Chauvel, Desert Mounted Corps

Rectangular red cotton Standard for a Corps Commander with a white cross sewn to each side. A pair of cotton tape ties is attached to each end of the hoist so that the Standard can be attached to the lance that was carried by the commander's Standard Bearer.

This Corps Commander's standard was carried by Lieutenant General (later General) H G Chauvel's Standard Bearer, Trooper Alfred Howard (Howard) Toes during the General's entry into Jerusalem in December 1917, and was later retained as a souvenir by him. Howard Toes was born in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1872 and later moved to New South Wales. During the Boer War he served in South Africa, with the service number 1403, as a private in F Company of the NSW Imperial Bushmen. He was wounded at Jameson's Store on 9 September 1900 and had the little finger of his left hand amputated as a result. He was invalided back to Australia in July 1901.
Toes was working as a station manager at Northam, Western Australia when he again enlisted for service, in the First World War, in December 1915, at the age of 39. He had previously worked as the overseer of a property in New South Wales and had been engaged to the owner's daughter. She had told him that she would break off the engagement if he enlisted and he apparently moved to Western Australia as a result, staying with his sister Mrs Florence Middleton, who he named as his next of kin on his enlistment. Toes returned to Sydney for training and was allocated the service number 2831. He sailed from Sydney aboard RMS Mongolia with the 19th reinforcements to 6 Light Horse Regiment, on 8 July 1916. After an attachment to 2 Light Horse Training Regiment as a temporary sergeant Toes reverted to the rank of private and finally joined 6 Light Horse Regiment in Palestine in March 1917. In August of that year he transferred to the headquarters of the Desert Mounted Corps where he was appointed Chauvel's Standard Bearer. In March 1918 Toes was evacuated sick to Egypt, only rejoining the headquarters in July. In July 1919, while waiting for transport back to Australia he was given permission to proceed to Ireland on paid leave where he studied horse husbandry at the Irish National Stud in County Kildare. He returned to Australia at the end of 1919.

During the Second World War Howard Toes, now living at Walgett, served part time with the Volunteer Defence Corps between 1942 and 1945. He died at Avalon, NSW, in 1958.