William George Malone - Legacy

Legacy

After the Battle of Chunuk Bair, while his bravery was not questioned, Malone initially came in for criticism of his handling of the defences, particularly the placement of his defence trenches. In the planning for the battle, and earlier in the Gallipoli Campaign, he had clashed with Major Arthur Temperley, Johnston's brigade major. Temperley, a British Army officer like Johnston, was one of the foremost critics of Malone's defensive arrangements and may have unduly influenced the subsequent official reports on the battle. However, recent studies have demonstrated that this criticism was misplaced and there were a number of crucial failures higher up in the chain of command. In particular, Johnston's delay in getting reinforcements to Chunuk Bair once it was captured likely led to the failure to hold the gains made by Malone's battalion.

In New Zealand, Malone's death was widely reported and keenly felt, particularly in the Taranaki region. The soldiers of the Wellington Regiment held their former commander in high regard and paid for the construction of the Malone Memorial Gate, white marble gates at the entrance to King Edward Park in Stratford. The gate, one of New Zealand's largest war memorials that commemorates an individual soldier, was officially opened on 8 August 1923 in front of a large crowd. The gate is the scene of an annual ceremony held on 8 August to commemorate the memory of Malone. A fictionalised colonel based on Malone was a major character in a 1982 play written by Maurice Shadbolt, Once on Chunuk Bair, which told the story of the Wellington Battalion's battle of 8 August. In 1992, the play was filmed as Chunuk Bair. A plaque in his honour was unveiled in the New Zealand Parliament's Grand Hall in 2005.