Chunuk Bair New Zealand Memorial Wall

It might have been supposed that Malone was a perfect candidate for a posthumous Victoria Cross - now that his dissidence was silenced. He had, after all, held the always imperilled outpost of Quinn's, and thus saved the Anzac beachhead; he had taken Chunuk Bair. But the high command remained unforgiving. More mysteriously still, Malone's name was to be ruthlessly blackened by his British superiors; he would eventually be blamed for the failure of the August offensive.

"Voices of Gallipoli", (Auckland 1988), Maurice Shadbolt, p. 118

I saw our Colonel Malone occasionally that day. He was moving about a fair amount. He kept boosting our morale, and he always had a kind word, an encouraging word. “It’ll easy off shortly,” he promised. “They’ll get tired of this.” Little nothings. Then he suddenly went missing and we heard he had been killed marking out a trench üline.

Vic Nicholson (Wellington Infantry Batallion) quoted in "Voices of Gallipoli", (Auckland 1988), Maurice Shadbolt, p. 94

No one was more lucid about the experience than Colonel Malone of the Wellington Battalion, who was fast shaping as a maverick among New Zealand officers. Fifty-six

years old, a catholic, a puritan, a musician, a stickler for martial virtue, Malone was a one-time Taranaki Farmer – a man who had sweated out years breaking in bush country- who had since educated himself as a lawyer. He prided himself on being a working man, a practical man, something he was soon sure his superiors were not. He had begun refusing orders which would lead to the destruction of his battalion.

"Voices of Gallipoli", (Auckland 1988), Maurice Shadbolt, p. 109-110

... veterans of the Wellington battalion remember a member of the machine-gun section (*) being sentenced to death for sleeping at his post. It happened in late July at Quinn’s Post. ...
... The sentence was remitted on medical grounds as the man had not been relieved from sentry duty at the proper time. He continued to serve on the peninsula and was killed in the August battles.

"Gallipoli-The New Zealand Story", (Auckland 1998), Christopher Pugsley, p. 265

(*) Pte Robert Christie Dunn (WIB)

extracts from an official letter (dated 4th October 1923) to Mrs M.A. McCandlish, mother of Roderick McCandlish :

... It is with deep regret that I have to inform you of the receipt of advice from the Imperial War Graves Commision that although representatives of the commision have searched and researched the area in which the above named soldier fell the grave has not been identified. ...
... By arrangement with the Imperial War Graves Commision The New Zealand Government will erect memorials to the missing in selected cemeteries in the various theatres of war, each memorial bearing the names of the missing in the area represented by the memorial. The above soldier’s name will be inscribed on the Missing memorial to be erected in Chunuk Bair Cemetery, 1 ½ miles from the Landing Anzac, and I hope in due course to forward you a photograph.

"Gallipoli-The New Zealand Story", (Auckland 1998), Christopher Pugsley, p. 265

I expect to go thro alright, but dear wife, if anything happens to me you must not grieve too much – there are our dear children to be brought up – You know how I love and have loved you ... I am prepared for death and I hope that God will have forgiven me all my sins.

extract from an letter of William Malone to his wife, dated 5th August 1915, quoted in "Gallipoli-The New Zealand Story", (Auckland 1998), Christopher Pugsley, p. 270

I lost my dearest friend, Teddy Charles, that day. We joined up together and saw the campaign through together until Chunuk Bair. There were no officers left, no NCOs. Just soldiers. Teddy led thirty men forward to try and hold the ridge. He called, “Come on, Vic” but I was impeded by Turkish fire. We never saw those thirty men again. Later, in the dark, I thought I heard Teddy’s voice calling for his mother, then for me. But then the place was crawling with Turks and I couldn’t get to him. He’s still on Chunuk Bair, a pile of bones.

Vic Nicholson (Wellington Infantry Batallion) quoted in "Voices of Gallipoli", (Auckland 1988), Maurice Shadbolt, p. 93

One of the outstanding New Zealand soldiers on Gallipoli was a young officer with the Wellington Infantry battalion. Second Lieutenant Thomas 'Army' Grace, an old boy of Wellington College, was a noted sportsman who had toured Australia and New Zealand with Parata's

Lt T. M. Grace, Wellington Battalion, one of the outstanding New Zealand Soldiers on Gallipoli", period picture reproduced from "Te Hokowhitu A Tu, the Maori Pioneer Battalion in the first world war". (Auckland-1995), C. Pugsley, p. 40.

Maori rugby team in 1913 and 1914. He was also a crack shot. Colonel W.G. Malone, who commanded the Wellington Battalion, put Grace in charge of his best marksmen and told him to clean out the Turkish snipers at the head of Monash Gully, who were picking of the supply parties working to the front line.
The Australian historian CEW Bean wrote : Grace's snipers, posted throughout the valley, placed a barrier as impenetrable as any earthwork between the traffic in Monash Valleyand the Turks whose trenches overlooked it. Thence forward, provided the snipers were first warned , even a convoy of mules could go to the supply depot near the head of the gully at midday, without a shot being fired at it.
Grace led by example, and raided and sniped the Turkish posts with his scouts. He also died with them on Chunuk Bair on 8th August 1915 during the August offensive to seize the critical heights.

"Te Hokowhitu A Tu, the Maori Pioneer Battalion in the first world war". (Auckland-1995), C. Pugsley, p. 40.

About 5 a.m.(*), while the Turkish attack upon them was still at its height, three high explosive howitzer shells, coming from the right rear, burst among them, one exploding in the front trench on the left, wrecking the trench, and killing the gallant Major Statham together with his brother beside him, as will as Sergeant-Major Porteous and six or seven men. The shells alomost certainly came from one of the howitzer batteries inside the old Anzac lines.

"The Story of Anzac", (Sydney 1981) Volume II, Charles E. W. Bean, p. 692

(*) August 9, Chunuk Bair heights

"Quinn's Post. Sentence of death. ... The prisoner is standing bare-headed in the foreground, in front of the man with fixed bajonet. An officer is reading the finding of the court martial to the assembled battalion", period picture reproduced from "Gallipoli-The New Zealand Story", (Auckland 1998), Christopher Pugsley, p. 266