John Crawford
February 2014
Glossary
Note: When an abbreviation or a contraction appears only once or twice, its meaning is noted in the text, but it has not been listed in the glossary.
A Australian
a acting
A/C Account
abt about, a contraction used by WGM
affect, affectly affectionate, affectionately
AIB Auckland Infantry Battalion
AIF Australian Imperial Force
Ammn Ammunition
AMR Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment
ann annum
ANZ Archives New Zealand, Wellington
ARRC Associate (or 2nd Class) Royal Red Cross
ATL Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga O Aotearoa
att attached
Aust and Austn Australian
aye forever
BAC Brigade Ammunition Column
Bde Brigade. WGM often used Bgde
Bgadier Brigadier, a contraction often used by WGM
Bn Battalion
Brig Brigadier
Bty Battery
C Celsius
Capt Captain
CB Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath
CBE Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
CG Croix de Guerre, awarded by France and Belgium
CIB Canterbury Infantry Battalion
CMG Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George
CMR Canterbury Mounted Rifles
Col Colonel
Corp Corporal
Cour Ordre de Couronne, awarded by Belgium
Coy Company
DAC Division Ammunition Column
Dan Ordre of Danilo, issued by Montenegro
DCM Distinguished Conduct Medal
Div or Divn Division
Divl, Divnl Divisional, contractions used by WGM
do do ditto
DOD Died of Disease (sickness)
DOW Died of Wounds
DSO Distinguished Service Order (2 = ‘& Bar’, a second DSO)
E East
eno enough
ere before
FA Field Artillery
Fd Field
GCB Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath
Gen General
Genl General, WGM sometimes wrote the word in full
GOC General Officer Commanding
HG Home Guard
HQ Headquarters. WGM also used HdQrs and Hdqrs
HQNZDF Headquarters New Zealand Defence Force, Wellington
I Infantry
IKM Ida Katherine Jemima Malone
Inf infantry
Inst abbreviation of instant, meaning ‘this month’
Kara Star of Karageorge, issued by Serbia
KBE Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
KCB Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath
KCMG Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George
KIA Killed in Action
KMARL Kippenberger Military Archive and Research Library, Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum, Waiouru
L/Cpl Lance-Corporal
Leo Ordre de Leopold, awarded by Belgium
LH Légion d’Honneur, awarded by France
Lt Lieutenant
Lt-Col Lieutenant-Colonel
M/gun machine gun
Maj Major
MBE Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
MC Military Cross
MFCL Malone Family Collection London
MIA Missing in Action
mid Mention in Despatches (number of times)
MR Mounted Rifles
N North
NCO Non-Commissioned Officer
nd no date
NZ New Zealand
Nzder New Zealander
N Zealander New Zealander
NZAOC NZ Army Ordnance Corps
NZASC NZ Army Service Corps
NZE NZ Engineers
NZEF NZ Expeditionary Force
NZFA NZ Field Artillery
NZPS NZ Permanent Staff
NZSC NZ Staff Corps
OBE Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
OC Officer Commanding, refers to all Commandant and Commanding Officer positions
OIB Otago Infantry Battalion
OMR Otago Mounted Rifles Regiment
Pdrs Pounders
P/F Personal File, files opened on every member of the New Zealand Military Forces
POW Prisoner of War
Pte Private
QM Quartermaster, as in QM-Sgt
RA Royal Artillery
Refts Reinforcement drafts
Regt Regiment
Reinfcts Reinforcements, a contraction generally used by WGM
RFA Royal Field Artillery
RND Royal Naval Division
S South
S A Salvation Army
Sam Samaritan Cross, awarded by Serbia
2i/c Second In Command
2/Lt 2nd Lieutenant
Sfd Stratford
Sgt Sergeant
Sgt-Maj Sergeant-Major
Sigs Signals
SSWar Brought to the notice of the Secretary of State for War (number of times)
Stan Order of St Stanislav, awarded by Russia
TD Territorial Decoration
Ulto abbreviation of ultimo, meaning ‘of last month’
VC Victoria Cross
VD Volunteer Decoration
W West
WE Order of the White Eagle, awarded by Serbia
WGM William George Malone
Wgton, Wgtn Wellington, contractions generally used by WGM
WIA Wounded in Action
WIB Wellington Infantry Battalion
WMR Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment
WO Warrant-Officer
yd yard
yday yesterday, a contraction almost always used by WGM
Yr your
Introduction
A full and varied life
* * *
Lieutenant-Colonel William George Malone lived and died by the doctrine he set out for his children in a letter he wrote before he sailed from New Zealand in 1914: ‘work and duty – duty to themselves – their fellows and above all to their country!’1 He would certainly have approved of the way in which he met his end: heroically leading his men in desperate fighting on Chunuk Bair at Gallipoli on 8 August 1915. In fact as Malone put it, he could imagine ‘no better death’.2
During his 56 years he had achieved a great deal in farming and legal affairs, as well as being a devoted husband and father. There can, however, be no doubt that he regarded the last year of his life, from August 1914 to August 1915 as the year of his most significant accomplishments. This was the year in which Malone prepared and then led in battle the Wellington Infantry Battalion.
William George Malone has probably become the best-known New Zealander to serve at Gallipoli. His name is forever connected with the epic capture and defence of Chunuk Bair. It is perhaps less well known that it was he who introduced the ‘lemon squeezer’ hat that has become an icon of the New Zealand Army. His status as a representative of the generation of New Zealanders who fought in the Great War was emphasised when one of his last letters to his wife was read by the Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright at the memorial service honouring New Zealand’s Unknown Warrior on 11 November 2004.
On 24 January 1859 William Malone was born in the village of Lewisham in Kent, which is now a suburb of London. Although his birth certificate refers to him as William Malone he was always known as William George Malone. Other members of the Malone family generally called him Willie.3 He was the second child of Thomas Augustine Malone and Louisa Malone, née Childs.4 Malone’s grandfather had emigrated from Ireland to England
and his father was born in England. Thomas Malone was an able chemist, who had since the mid-1840s been an assistant to the leading scientist and developer of the negative-positive system of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot. After working for Fox Talbot in Reading, where he had previously been employed in a shop that sold the scientist chemicals, Thomas Malone moved to London where he continued to work for Fox Talbot until his death. He became a Fellow of the Chemical Society and was acquainted with a number leading British scientists of the day.5
Thomas Malone, who was a staunch Roman Catholic, died in 1867 at the age of 44. His death left the family in reduced circumstances financially. His son William was educated at a succession of Catholic schools. He first attended St Joseph’s College in the London suburb of Clapham. Later he went as a boarder to a Marist Brothers school in Plymouth, before spending two years at another Marist Brothers school in Lille, France. During his time in Lille, Malone became fluent in French.6 He was a competent pianist with a strong interest in music, especially classical music.7
William George Malone in 1879, as he prepared to set out for a new life in New Zealand.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
After completing his education in France, Malone started work in an office in London in 1876. The same year he demonstrated an early interest in military matters by joining the London and Westminster Rifle Volunteers. In 1877 he transferred to the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers. He served in that unit as a Seaman Gunner until 1879, when he sailed for New Zealand on the Western Monarch.8 Throughout the rest of his life Malone seems to have been interested in small boats and boating.9
Malone travelled as a steerage passenger [the cheapest type of passage], landing in New Zealand in January 1880. On arriving in the colony, Malone transferred to a smaller ship which took him to Opunake beach where he and his luggage were rowed ashore. The young immigrant tipped the lighterman sixpence, but he returned it saying: ‘You’ll be needing this yourself before long’.10 The following month he enlisted in the Armed Constabulary. His older brother, Austin, had already emigrated to New Zealand and had been serving in the Armed Constabulary since May 1878. Both brothers apparently served at Opunake. Austin Malone left the Armed Constabulary in November 1880. A year later William Malone was part of the force that suppressed Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu’s community at Parihaka. In April 1882 he took his discharge from the Armed Constabulary. He worked for a short period on the surf-boats operating on the Opunake coast. William then went into partnership with Austin in a small block of 79 acres of bush country at Stratford in Taranaki. William Malone, it appears, first became acquainted with the Stratford area in 1881 when he was made Drill-Instructor Sergeant for a newly raised Volunteer Corps, the Stratford Rangers. Shortly after they began farming, the Malone brothers were joined by their mother and their two sisters, Louisa [known as Louie] and Agnes. They may well have provided some of the capital to purchase the block of land on the Opunake Road, Stratford, which was valued at £220.11 In January 1886 the Malone brothers’ farm suffered significant damage in a huge bush fire that devastated much of the Stratford area.12 William Malone had a reputation for being a good neighbour, who would go out of his way to help others. On one occasion, Austin and William went, in the middle of the night, to assist a neighbour in the awkward and strenuous task of rescuing a horse or a cow that was stuck in a waterhole.13
William George Malone was a man of great energy and drive and in a few years succeeded through hard work in converting his bush-covered land into productive farmland.14 He was also a keen rugby player who in 1889 and 1890 represented Taranaki.15 The partnership between the Malone Malone’s first family house, near Stratford, in July 1902. Two of Malone’s sons can be seen wearing distinctive lemon squeezer hats. Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL) brothers was dissolved in 1889, after which Austin Malone farmed on his own account near Stratford.16 Austin later fell on hard times. He moved away from Taranaki and was killed in an accident while working with a railway construction gang in South Auckland on 19 February 1915.17
Malone’s first family house, near Stratford, in July 1902. Two of Malone’s sons can be seen wearing distinctive lemon squeezer hats.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
In New Plymouth, on 27 November 1886, Malone married Elinor Lucy Penn aged 22, a member of a well-to-do Taranaki family.18 They had five children: Edmond Leo born in September 1888, Terence Joseph in August 1890, Brian in May 1893, Maurice Patrick in May 1895 and Norah in October 1897.19
Malone’s ‘personality and ability speedily earned him the confidence and respect of his fellow settlers, whom he ably served on local bodies.’20 During the 1880s he was as a member and for a time chairman of the Ngaire Road Board and a member of the Hawera County Council. In 1890 Malone set himself up as a land and commission agent in Stratford.21
In June 1890, Malone was a member of a delegation of local people who went to Wellington to lobby the government to open the East Road to facilitate settlement of the area from Stratford to Otorohanga. Some local people saw this initiative as being prompted, at least in part, by the self-interest of large landholders in the area and others who stood to benefit from the development of this district. Later in the year Malone was a key figure in the successful campaign to establish the Stratford County Council. At the public meeting to initiate steps to form the new local body, Malone attacked the Hawera County Council for failing to undertake essential public works in the area, in particular the East Road. The new local body took over the responsibilities of four roads boards and the Stratford Town Board and was an important step in the development of the area. The following year Malone was appointed the new county’s first clerk-treasurer, a part-time position carrying a salary of £52 a year. Within a few years Malone was regarded as an expert on municipal law whose advice was ‘eagerly sought’ by and ‘generously given’ to other local body officials. He held the post until he resigned in 1900. For much of this time the council’s office was in Malone’s business premises, an arrangement for which he initially received five shillings a week in rent.22 After the introduction of compulsory military training in 1910, Malone lent, then rented out, rooms in his premises to serve as the offices for the regular military personnel based in Stratford.23
Malone was made a Justice of the Peace in December 1892.24 Even though he was busy with his farming, business and community affairs, Malone still found time for part-time legal studies. In April 1894 he was admitted as a solicitor and in September 1899 he qualified as a barrister. He began to practise in Stratford by himself, before in 1903 going into partnership with James McVeagh and William Anderson. The opening of new land, its subdivision and the expansion of the dairy industry meant that it was an auspicious time to be a lawyer in Taranaki. Malone’s firm acted for a range of clients including local farmers, businessmen, local bodies and dairy companies. Arranging for clients to take out mortgages or for clients to invest money in mortgages over property was an important part of the partnership’s business. It was a highly successful firm and within a few years had branches at New Plymouth, Inglewood, Eltham and Kaponga. Malone moved to New Plymouth in 1903 to establish a branch of his firm.25
Malone’s active involvement in military affairs was renewed in 1900 when he was instrumental in the formation of the Stratford Rifle Volunteers. This unit was one of nearly 100 new Volunteer Corps established between July 1899 and September 1901 as a result of the patriotic enthusiasm generated by the South African War. Malone was elected by the members of the corps to command it and was commissioned as a captain in the New Zealand Volunteer Force after passing the necessary examination. The Stratford Rifles was, like other Volunteer Corps, a small unit with three officers and 28 noncommissioned officers [NCOs] and other ranks. Malone, as a prominent local lawyer and farmer, was typical of the sort of men who dominated the leadership of the Volunteer Force. Although he already had substantial personal and business commitments, Malone proved to
be a dedicated Volunteer.26
In 1900, it appears, Malone gave up alcohol and tobacco and embarked on a regime of physical fitness and toughening intended to prepare him for the challenge of war. Reportedly, he usually slept on a military stretcher instead of a soft bed. Malone also apparently later paced out the distance from his home to his office and marched between the two at the unique Rifle Brigade rate of 140 paces a minute.27 He was, as his daughter Norah later wrote, ‘an extremely disciplined and self-controlled man.’28 Nonetheless, Malone was an outgoing man who enjoyed social events.29
Malone’s move to New Plymouth in 1903 necessitated his resignation from command of the Stratford Rifle Volunteers in September 1903.30 The commander of the local Volunteer battalion, however, did not want to lose the services of a man he regarded as ‘a very capable officer’ and successfully requested that he be appointed adjutant of the 4th Battalion Wellington (Taranaki) Rifle Volunteers.31 Malone was clearly very well regarded by other Taranaki Volunteer officers and by regular officers in the Wellington military district. In 1904 he was made an additional member of the Wellington Local Board of Military Examination. The following year he was promoted to major and made second in command of his battalion.32 Malone’s military abilities were clearly evident during the 1908 Wellington district manoeuvres. The scenario for the manoeuvres involved a hostile ‘Blue Force’ that had landed at Paramata north of Wellington attempting to seize the capital, which was defended by a substantially larger ‘Red Force’. The ‘Blue Force’ was made up principally of Volunteers from Taranaki, Wanganui and the Manawatu. Malone, who was the force’s chief staff officer, carefully reconnoitred the hilly, rugged country north of the city and with his commanding officer devised an innovative plan to outflank the defending force by marching across country at night. During the night of 18–19 April, Malone guided the attacking troops through the screen of outposts maintained by the defending ‘Red Force’ in hills north of the city and into the capital. The ‘Blue Force’s’ attack was widely praised by senior New Zealand officers as an exemplary model of sound planning, good tactics and disciplined hard work by the troops involved. Malone was one of the officers singled out for particular praise.33