- William Malone
Lieutenant Colonel William George Malone (
24 January 1859 -8 August 1915 ) was as aWorld War I new Zealand soldier.He was born in
Kent ,cite web |url=http://www.pukeariki.com/en/stories/conflict/wgmalone.asp | author = Virginia Winder | title = W.G. Malone - Tough man with a soft heart | work = Puke Ariki Museum, New Plymouth | accessdate=2005-08-07] England to an Irish mother and an English scientist father. His father died when he was nine and he was educated inEngland andFrance and became fluent in French.He emigrated to New Zealand in January 1880, to join his brother, Austin, in the New Zealand Armed Constabulary at Opunake. He took part in the storming of the village of
Parihaka on5 November 1881 , He left the Armed Constabulary after three years service and became involved in surfboats which unloaded cargo at Opunake. With his brother he eventually bought a large block of land in Statford and is mother and two sisters emigrated to join the brothers. He eventually owned several farms in Taranaki.He married twice, his first wife, Elinor Lucy (nee Penn) in November 1886 and the couple had a daughter and four sons died during childbirth in June 1904. He married Ida Katharine Withers, 16 years younger than him, in September 1905, and she bore two sons and a daughter.
He took an active part in the community of Stratford in
Taranaki ,New Zealand and helped found the Stratford County Council and served as its firstclerk andtreasurer from 1891 to 1900. He was appointed a magistrate in 1892. Studying law, he became a solicitor on19 April 1894 and a barrister five years later. In 1903, the same year that he moved to New Plymouth, he formed a partnership dealing mostly with land transactions with James McVeagh and W. D. Anderson and the partners opened four or five offices.In the 1908 general election he stood unsuccessfully as an independent Liberafor the Taranaki seat. He returned to Stratford, after selling his share of the law practice, in 1911.
During the
Second Boer War he had helped raise the Stratford Rifle Volunteers to fight in it and was commissioned as a captain. By 1910 he was lieutenant colonel commanding the 4th Battalion of the Wellington (Taranaki) Rifle Volunteers and was placed in command of the 11th Regiment (Taranaki Rifles) in 1911.He invented the "lemon squeezer" hat, which was he made the regimental hat in 1911. It both mirrored the outline of
Mount Egmont and allowed rain to run off and in September 1916 was adopted by the entire New Zealand army.At the outbreak of
World War I , he was in command of the Wellington Battalion of theNew Zealand Expeditionary Force and deployed as part of the ANZAC forces. He saw extensive action during theBattle of Gallipoli and was killed during theChunuk Bair on8 August 1915 . His body was never identified.Popular belief held that a Turkish shell killed Malone, but research suggests that
friendly fire killed him whilst he surveyed the battlefield to determine the best position for another regiment. (A British battleship shelledChunuk Bair because the British believed that the Turks would have killed any remaining ANZACS there by that time.)
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