The Diaries and Letters of Lt Col W. G. Malone August 1914-August 1915

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XXII, Issue 1, 1 May 1989, Page 41

The Diaries and Letters of Lt Col W. G. Malone August 1914-August 1915

E. P. MALONE

In December 1936 the British Official Historian of the Gallipoli campaign, Brigadier Aspinall-Oglander wrote to W. B. ‘Barney’ Malone, a son of Lt Col W. G. Malone: I am deeply indebted to you for the opportunity [to read the diaries of your father]. It is really a wonderful document and cannot but inspire anyone who knows the circumstances . . . with the utmost admiration for the writer. The whole story bears the stamp of absolute truth, and the man stands out convincingly as not only a great strategist, a great tactician, and a great leader of men, but as an extraordinarily loveable character (as indeed any leader of men must be), his sternness offset by an extraordinary knowledge of human nature, deep sympathy for his men, a sensitive appreciation of their difficulties, and a determination never to set them a task which he would not and could not do himself. . . . But I am so very distressed that I did not see this diary 10 years ago, when I first started writing the Official History. It would have saved me many pitfalls. 1

The Library has had a typescript of the diary for some time, and has now received the original and many of Malone’s letters written in the same period. Aspinall-Oglander’s comments amply testify to the importance of the diaries to military historians, and the letters although essentially private contain many references to military concerns which reinforce those in the diary. It is astonishing in retrospect to note that no other use was made of them until 1964, when Robert Rhodes James made extensive use of them in his definitive account of the Gallipoli campaign, listing them in his bibliography as a major collection.

New Zealand historians became aware of the existence of copies of the diary in the early 1980 s and Michael King made use of them in New Zealanders at War; 3 but the first historian to see and use extensively the originals of both diary and letters was Christopher Pugsley in his Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story. 4 Jock Phillips also used the diary in his A Man’s Country , 5 and substantial extracts from diaries and letters appear in The Great Adventure , 6 a collection of New Zealand soldiers’ writings on the First World War.

The value of the papers to military historians is principally to clarify what happened in actions at Anzac, where Malone was a participant and eyewitness, and responsible through his decisions and action in determining the outcome of those actions. His battalion did not land at Anzac until late on the day of the landing of 25 April 1915, and were first engaged in an effort to reinforce and hold the gains made

immediately after the landing. Through his efforts the situation was stabilised in spite of heavy casualties and the left flank of the ANZAC foothold made secure. On the night of the first landing, he noted, there had been talk of re-embarkation; ‘Personally’, he wrote, ‘I see nothing to require it’, 7 and there was no further talk of abandoning Anzac. Of this action Aspinall-Oglander wrote:

[The diary] . . . particularly made me regret something which I wrote about the first few days at Anzac. Naturally, as Official Historian, I was not a free agent, and I could not say exactly what I liked. Many happenings had to be omitted altogether and many (as I thought) fair criticisms were deleted by the official blue pencil. But I was at least allowed to use my own discretion in allotting praise, and it distresses me acutely to find now that, in one particular case, where I went out of my way to eulogise what . . . seemed to be indisputably a piece of extremely fine leadership by a certain officer, I should apparently to have backed the wrong horse! Anyhow, your father’s diary now makes me think that, for he definitely states that the other man I praised so highly was in fact a public danger! 8

The New Zealand Infantry Brigade then went to the Cape Helles front, where they took part in the failed attack on the whole Turkish line. The New Zealanders’ objective in the attack was the village of Krithia, but they were brought to a halt, with severe casualties very far short of their goal. Malone describes this battle, and the general situation at Cape Helles. 9

On his return to Anzac Malone was after a while made commander in succession of two vital posts in the Anzac front line; first at Courtney’s Post and then Quinn’s. It was at Quinn’s where he brought about his most notable success, and earned the praise of the high command. These posts were parts of the line where the Allied grip was most tenuous. When Malone took them over they were a chaotic jumble of trenches and dugouts on the edge of precipitous slopes only a few yards from the Turkish line. The Australians and New Zealanders were in constant danger of being pushed or blown off their perch by the Turks, who were, moreover, able to fire in enfilade upon their trenches from both sides. Malone noted that Courtney’s Post was ‘a very higgledy-piggledy show. People all over the place’; 10 but after eight days in which he had transformed the situation, he was transferred to Quinn’s. His account of what followed is preceded by a typical criticism of Australians. They were responsible in his opinion for the dangerous condition of Courtney’s and Quinn’s:

In the early stages [when further attacks would have succeeded in pushing the Turks back] The Australians seemingly just sat down and waited and waited and did nothing. That seems to be their character. Dash forward like mad things and then instead of working and making good, sit down and loaf and then get ‘scary’. 11 Taking over Quinn’s he wrote, ‘Such a dirty, dilapidated, unorganised post. Still I like work and will revel in straightening things up .. . gave orders that every rifle shot and bomb from the Turks was to be

promptly returned at least twofold. We can and will beat them at their own game.’ 12 After a week or two he was able to claim that The men are inspired with the conviction that they have superiority over the Turk and are getting a fair run for their lives. ... A Turk deserter told our Headquarters that the Turks had found the mining and fighting so hazardous opposite Quinn’s Post . . . that they had to call for volunteers to man the trenches opposite it and that every such volunteer was promoted to corporal. That the shooting of the soldiers in Quinn’s Post was so deadly that they [the Turks] had closed up all their loopholes and men were forbidden to use them. They had lost such a number of men shot through the loopholes in the head and killed. . . . The place has been scraped and cleaned and repaired and put in order. We have been congratulated by [Generals] Birdwood, Godley and Lotbiniere and their anxiety is at an end. 13

Malone’s diary ends on 5 August shortly before he moved with his battalion to take part in the plan to break the Gallipoli stalemate. In three days he was dead, killed by a British shell after a desperate and bloody defence of the highest point reached in the campaign, Chunuk Bair. His last diary entries reveal his misgivings about the venture, and accurately predict what happened:

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wellington Battalion gets up alone and has to dig in and stick it out as at Walker’s Ridge and Krithia. I am feeling very fit and the prospect of action is inspiriting. But I do feel that the preparation, as regards our Brigade anyway, is not thorough. The Brigadier will not get down to bedrock. He seems to think that night attack and the taking of entrenched position is like ‘kissing one’s hand’. Yesterday he burst forth, ‘lf there’s any hitch I shall go right up and take the place myself’. He is an extraordinary man. If it were not so serious it would be laughable. So far as I am concerned the men, my brave gallant men, shall have the best fighting chance I can give them or that can be got. No airy plunging or disregard of the rules and chances. 14

The reference to the Brigadier [F. E. Johnstone], 15 was the last entry of many in his letters as well as the diary, about his disagreements and difficulties with Johnstone and with the Brigade Major, A. C. Temperley. 16 The difficulties were both professional and personal. Malone believed that a major weakness of many officers was their failure to challenge or question their superiors. Malone himself would rarely take no for an answer. This was something that Johnstone and Temperley, both Imperial officers, were not used to, although Johnstone was New Zealand-born. Malone’s frequent questioning of decisions came to be regarded as insubordination. Malone wrote to a friend on one occasion,

When the present job is finished I think I shall have to try to get me out of the Brigade. I don’t seem to be able to get on with Colonel Johnstone. My last communication with him he dubbed ‘Extremely insubordinate’. He had refused a request for a working party and I asked him to refer the matter to Divisional Headquarters for a ruling. 1 His difficulties with Temperley were in some respects more serious, as Temperley was the ‘go-between’ and was thought by Malone to be ‘a poisoner, a sneak’ who carried false tales to Johnstone. 18 The latter

was often unfit for duty. There was a belief on Gallipoli that he was an alcoholic, 19 and it seems that Temperley was at times almost the de facto commander of the Brigade. 20 Malone’s assessment was probably justified. Temperley thought that Malone was a stubborn colonial with a few rigidly held ideas. After Malone was killed Temperley wrote a report in which Malone was blamed for the failure of the August offensive because of errors of judgment on Chunuk Bair. 21 This view was repeated by John North, 22 but has been amply demolished by James and Pugsley. 23

Malone’s difficulties with Johnstone and Temperley caused him to come to the conclusion that in future all senior positions in the New Zealand forces, at least up to the rank of Brigadier should be held by New Zealanders. He reveals what New Zealand soldiers commonly recorded in their letters and diaries; a low opinion of the Imperial officers and troops and a corresponding belief in the superiority of the New Zealander over practically every other nationality. In this and other ways, their growing sense of a distinctive New Zealand nationality was revealed. Malone’s letters and diaries are a fruitful source of observations and comparisons with other nationalities. Before he left Wellington he was interested to observe Japanese officers from the cruiser Ibuki, part of the escdrt of the New Zealand troopships, in Whitcombe and Tombs.

Maps! were their quest. Always out for intelligence. I suppose we shall be at war with them under ten years. I like the look of the officers and have always admired the Japanese people. They appear to me to be patriotic, abstemious, industrious, brave and clean. They worship their ancestors and their children. They would I believe make A 1 Christians. 24 He confesses to a prejudice against Australians, which he cannot explain. He noted that he must try to be fair, but criticisms of the Australians are encountered regularly in his writings. In Egpyt his comments were typical of many New Zealanders:

They look a loose beery lot . . . our New Zealand men are very different and do look like soldiers. The shirt blouse worn by the Australians gives them a Garibaldean, boy scout, scally wag look and I am afraid helps demoralise them. They knock about Cairo, officers and men, at all hours and seem to be at the bottom of all the rows and disturbances that happen. I am a great believer in the moral effect of clothes and uniform, though I know I am not very keen on smart clothes for myself. 25 His comments on junior British officers were rather uncomplimentary:

The officers seem a sort of their own. Show not well done and not somehow or another altogether soldierly. I couldn’t help thinking of the Punch Volunteer Officer .. . I suppose it is that they are fish out of water. Our Colonial officers in most cases are practical men and more or less take readily to soldiering. The English chaps don’t appear to do so. As for the British other ranks, he made what was a common observation

by New Zealand troops, ‘The shortness of them is most striking. Our men seem like giants alongside them.’ 26 Later, at Mudros waiting for the Gallipoli landings, Malone saw troops of many nationalities, and was able to make further comparisons. At a street cafe,

I sat in state and reviewed the passers, a motley crowd sailors and soldiers of the different races. English French, Australian, NZ, Russian, Algerian, Senegalese, Greeks .... Saw the biggest part of a battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Regulars. Long service .... I had a real good look at them and didn’t like their looks. Their faces are not good. They look very young, boys many of them; they are small men. Nothing smart about them; good stuff, no doubt; but if they are, as they have been called, the flower of the British Army then I understand General Godley’s statement that the NZ Division should be the best in the Army . . . our men on the whole look like gentlemen and the Tommies don’t. As for the French —they look very slack and soft. 27

Malone was born in England in 1859, his father being of a family which had left Ireland in the late eighteenth century, and, in spite of the handicap of being Catholic had prospered. ‘Willie’, as he was known to the family, was educated in England and France at Catholic schools. He became fluent in French, and was said to have heard the guns during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. At the age of twenty he voyaged to New Zealand, served in the Armed Constabulary and in 1883 took up land with his brother Austen near Stratford. He was a successful farmer, land agent, local body official and office holder, studied law and in 1895 was admitted to the bar. 28 By 1906 his law firm had branches in a number of Taranaki towns and was sharing in the prosperity brought about by the rapid growth of land settlement and the dairy industry. 29

A former friend and colleague wrote that Malone ‘was successful in everything he undertook.’ 30 The exception to this was his two attempts to be elected to Parliament in 1907 and 1908. This failure was due in part to his belief that ‘the only sound rule in life is Right, not Expediency’, for when he was approached to stand as an official Liberal candidate, he insisted that he would vote according to his conscience, and was dropped. His subsequent stand as an Independent Liberal was impressive but fatally split the Liberal vote. 31

But his most absorbing interest was in military affairs and for most of his adult life he had been a part-time soldier. When compulsory military training was introduced in New Zealand in 1909, he played an important part in the formation of the Territorial forces, becoming commander of the XI Taranaki Rifles and although he was fifty-five years of age in 1914 volunteered immediately when war was declared and was made commander of the Wellington Infantry Battalion. As the commander of the Ist New Zealand Expeditionary Force, General

Godley was to write of Malone after his death, ‘Soldiering was not only his hobby. It was in his bones and I believe he foresaw that he and others like him would be proved in the furnace of war.’ 32 Malone was an ardent Imperialist. He believed that the British Empire was threatened by the growth of German power, and had decided, probably before 1905, that war with Germany was inevitable. This was of course a commonly held opinion, created to some extent by the flood of fiction and other writing which had been flowing since the 1860 s and had achieved an enormous volume by 1910. 33 Malone believed, encouraged by the writings of that popular philosopher Ruskin, that war could have a beneficial effect on the participants. He was fond of quoting Ruskin and had given General Godley before the war a copy of Ruskin’s Crown of Wild Olives according to Godley ‘One of my most treasured possessions’ 34 —in which Malone had marked the following passage:

I found, in brief, that all great nations learned their truth of word, and strength of word and strength of thought in war; that they were nourished in war, and wasted by peace; trained by war, and betrayed by peace: in a word, that they were born in war, and expired in peace. The coming of the war was therefore an occasion for excitement and pleasure at the prospect of adventure in the great world outside New Zealand. Malone did not hesitate. In his own words, he left a lucrative practice, a comfortable home and a loving family but had no doubt that it was the right thing to do. It was his duty, as he saw it, and nothing could have prevented him doing it. He contrasted his new life with his thirty-four years in Taranaki, and confessed that after the first pioneering years, he had not really had a joy in life. ‘Stodging [sic] away money making was no man’s game’ 55 and This life suits me, mind and body. It is a man’s life. I wonder if I shall come back or leave my bones in Europe but I am content. I am in God’s hands and no death could be better. But I do not feel anxious and look forward to coming back to my dear wife and children. 36

At Aden, on the voyage to Egypt, these sentiments were reinforced by the sight of so many ships laden with troops hastening to Britain’s aid from the Empire. This war is the redemption of England and will leave the Empire better and greater in every sense. I think that Norman Angell wrote a book to prove that man was so degenerate that he would allow the dollar to rule the world and man’s actions. I always scorned the notion and hadn’t the patience to read the book. The author does not understand human nature. Thank God he has proven wrong. There will be much individual suffering and loss but the world and the Empire will gain tremendously. 37 Malone’s stern sense of duty and devotion to Kitchener’s motto ‘Thorough’ and his typically Victorian seriousness and rather puritanical cast of mind made him rather unpopular at first with some of his officers

and men. He set out to get perfection and so earned a martinet’s reputation. Leaving Wellington Harbour the battalion band struck up, on the adjutant’s orders:

Then of a sudden the band struck up! Too cheap for anything. Most unharmonious ... I called [my officers] together and told them that the spirit of the Regiment was to be a doing of its work grimly and quietly without any beating of its chest or banging of drums! That to any right thinking soldier the striking up of our band with [a] tune, I think ‘Everybody’s Doing It’ or some such blatant air was shocking. I am afraid that they didn’t all agree with me, but they will learn. 38 On another occasion he noted regarding a Sunday concert, I didn’t go. I don’t think the average soldier’s comic song should be encouraged on Sunday. It is generally a bit risque. Sunday with its three or four Divine Services to wind up [in] the evening with double entendre canticles is wrong. 39 And just three days later,

I am sorry to find that the sports people have put on an event called a ‘Bun and Treacle’ race. One of those more or less degrading things that the world still thinks is good fun. I hate scrambles etc. They sort of teach the competitors to act like brute animals. 40 On reaching Colombo Malone was thrilled with the colour, the busde and excitement:

Tremendous movement and life. We are in the world now right enough. After my thirty years in Taranaki I am now seeing the world and taking part in its affairs. . . . Took my batman Okey to carry my haversack. . . . Colombo is white, brown, red and green, most beautifully green in the rainy season. The streets full of natives, rickshaw men, pony phaetons motor cars and bullock carts. The native dresses in all colours, whites, purples, reds, browns, blues, greens, yellows, khakis. . . . One has seen all the sights in pictures etc but one has not realised before. It was most fascinating to watch the crowds. The streets are streaming with people and vehicles. . . . All shades of whitey brown faces. Mixture of Portugese, Dutch, Tamil, Sinhalese, Indians, Malays, no negro apparently and British. ... I stalked around and had a good look at the natives. A small hump backed boy about one and a half feet high came up behind me and gave me a little pluck and held out his hand. I couldn’t resist giving him half a rupee. Then of course plenty of wee brown mites, some quite naked, flocked along and plucked or touched me so gently and held out their hands; not a word. I soon got rid of my small coins. Quite sinful I suppose, but I couldn’t help it. 41

It is difficult to tell from Malone’s diary alone whether the subsequent Gallipoli experience had diminished his excitement and his ardour for the Empire’s cause. His letters are more intimate and revealing and one finds in them some of the strain and weariness that is evident in writings and recollections of other New Zealanders on Gallipoli. Before Chunuk Bair, he was aware of the exhaustion of the troops, and if he had been able to, would have gained them a spell of rest. He wrote to his wife: ‘The men are run down; three months fighting and work, big nerve strain, heavy casualties, not much rest bring the best of men to a point dangerously near that of breaking.’ His loyalty to his men

would have prevented him from seeking rest for himself, and he claimed he did not need it; but there is a certain note of resignation in his letters which does not appear in the diaries. He expresses his longing to be with his wife: ‘Yes, I do want you. I long and long and am beginning to lose my enjoyment of this life, as it entails separation from you. You are in all my spare time in my thoughts and I so look forward to our reunion’. 42 Malone was killed on Chunuk Bair on 8 August 1915. A recent commentator has suggested that Malone’s views on the nuclear weapons question would not be difficult to deduce, implying I think that they would have been conservative. 43 ! have often wondered what he would have made of the useless slaughter of men in France, or of the atrocity of ‘area’ bombing in the Second World War and conclude that his compassion would have prevailed. It is not merely family loyalty that makes me say that; I think the evidence is in what he wrote. One of the most striking features of the diary has been its power to project Malone’s personality and gain the admiration and even affection of his readers, even when they have read him in the pursuit of impartial research; they become his ‘fans’. The letters have not been available before, except to Pugsley, and I suggest now that one should not be read without the other. They have a contribution to make beyond military history; in my admittedly partial opinion they deserve a place in a our literature.

REFERENCES 1 C. A. Aspinall-Oglander to W. B. Malone, 3 December 1936. Original in possession of the author. Photocopy of this item together with the diaries and letters are located at Malone, W. G. MS Papers 2198 and MS Group 56. Alexander Turnbull Library. 2 Robert Rhodes James, Gallipoli (London, 1965). 3 Michael King, New Zealanders at War (Auckland, 1981). 4 Christopher Pugsley, Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story (Wellington, 1984). 5 Jock Phillips, A Man’s Country? The Image of the Pakeha Male—A History (Auckland, 1987). 6 The Great Adventure: New Zealand Soldiers describe the First World War, edited by Jock Phillips, Nicholas Boyack and E. P. Malone (Wellington, 1988). 7 Diary of W. G. Malone, August 1914-August 1915 (hereafter Diary), 25 April 1915. 8 Aspinall-Oglander, as above. 9 Diary, 6 May to 19 May 1915. 10 Diary, 1 June 1915. 11 Diary, 8 June 1915. 12 Diary, 9 June 1915. 13 Diary, 9 June to 25 July 1915. 14 Diary, 4 August 1915. 15 Colonel F. E. Johnstone, C. 8., Commander New Zealand Infantry Brigade, 1914-17; born NZ 1872, regular officer British Army, killed in action, France 7 August 1917.

16 Major A. C. Temperley, Norfolk Regiment, General Staff Officer, New Zealand 1913-14, Brigade Major NZ Infantry Brigade 1914-17, born England 1877, died 1959. 17 W. G. Malone to Lt Col G. S. Richardson, Royal Naval Division, Gallipoli 1915, 19 June 1915. 18 Diary, 20 May 1915. 19 Christopher Pugsley to E. P. Malone (interview) 12 January 1986. 20 A. C. Temperley, ‘Personal Narrative of the Battle of Chunuk Bair’, unpublished typescript. (MS 0017). Queen Elizabeth Army Museum, Waiouru. 21 Temperley, pp. 11-16. 22 John North, Gallipoli—The Fading Vision (London, 1936), pp. 114-16. 23 James, p. 285; Pugsley, pp. 291-304. 24 Diary, 14 October 1914. 25 Diary, 26 December 1914. 26 Diary, 14 December 1914. 27 Diary, 19 April 1915. 28 Louisa Sanders (nee Malone) to Brian Malone, 1 May 1921. 29 Cyclopedia of New Zealand v. 6 (1908), p. 81. 30 C. E. Major, Auckland Star, 30 September 1915.

31 Brian Malone to E. P. Malone, 1962; Taranaki Herald, 24 April, 15 May 1907; Taranaki Daily News, 20 October, 20 November 1908; Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1909, H-30C. p. 10. 32 Sir Alexander Godley to I. K. Malone, 7 June 1932. 33 I. F. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War, 1763-1984 (London, 1966), pp. 1-2. 34 Godley to I. K. Malone, 7 June 1932. 35 W. G. Malone to Mr Laurenson, 26 August 1914; to Mrs Lawless, 26 August 1914. 36 Diary, 15 November 1914. 37 Diary, 25 November 1914. 38 Diary, 16 November 1914. 39 Diary, 9 November 1914. 40 Diary, 12 November 1914. 41 Diary, 15 November 1914. 42 W. G. Malone to I. K. Malone 5 August 1915. 43 Stuart Park reviewing The Great Adventure, in New Zealand Listener, 17 December 1988, p. 63.