No Better Death

by John Crawford

  Certificate of Medical Examination, 31 Aug 1914, W.G. Malone P/F. The height recorded may be inaccurate as when he enlisted in the Armed Constabulary WGM was described as being 5 feet 9 1/2 inches tall (1.76 m), Register No.1, Armed Constabulary Description Book, p.183, P8/1 and in 1900 as being 5 feet 10 inches tall (1.78 m), Stratford Rifle Volunteers, Nominal Capitation Roll for the Year Ending 28 Feb 1901, ARM41 69, 1910/4o, ANZ.

  WGM to Laurenson, 26 Aug 1914; Clemow to Judy Malone, 12 Aug 1991, MS-Papers-11408-19.

  Chapter 1

  Maj (later Lt-Col) Felix T. Bellringer, MBE; 5 Mar 1877 New Plymouth – 20 Jun 1965; married town clerk of New Plymouth 1902– 53; OC 11th Taranaki Regt, medically unfit for service overseas; WWII OC Linton Camp.

  Maj (later Lt-Col) William L. Robinson, NZSC, mid; 11 Nov 1881 Foxton – 1 Nov 1963; single soldier of Wellington; no.39715, NZ Rifle Bde, DAAG NZ Div.

  Maj (later Brig-Gen Sir) Herbert E. Hart, KBE CB CMG DSO mid(5) CG; 13 Oct 1882 Carterton – 5 Mar 1968; married solicitor of Carterton; 10/133 2i/c WIB, later OC WIB, OC 4NZIB, OC Sling Camp; WIA May 1915, 1918; SA War, WWII GHQ Mideast 1940–43. Hart kept a detailed diary throughout the First World War. John Crawford (ed.), The Devil’s Own War; the First World War Diary of Brigadier-General Herbert Hart (Auckland, 2008).

  Col (later Brig-Gen) F. Earl Johnston, CB mid(4) Kara; 1 Oct 1871 UK – 7 Aug 1917; single soldier of Palmerston North; 10/512A, OC NZ Inf Bde; KIA France.

  Robinson ‘lacks experience and knowledge.... He is of no real use to me’. Malone noted he was on good terms with Robinson and had told him he intended to ask for him to be replaced. WGM to Johnston, 18 Aug 1914, W.L. Robinson, P/F, ANZ.

  Capt (later Maj) Michael McDonnell; 22 Jun 1873 Tuamarina – 25 Jul 1951; married soldier of New Plymouth; 10/1095, HQ WIB; soldier 1893–1921, Diamond Jubilee 1897, SA War 1901–02, NZEF 1914–16.

  Penn – WGM’s lawyers and his first wife’s brothers.

  Hon Capt & QM (later Capt) William J. Shepherd; 1 Nov 1885 Dunedin – 7 Nov 1946; married salesman of New Plymouth; 10/1094 QM HQ WIB.

  Capt (later Lt-Col) George Home, NZMC, CBE OBE; 15 Feb 1870 USA – 7 Feb 1956; married doctor of New Plymouth; 10/1093 att WIB, later OC No.3 NZ Gen Hosp.

  Lt (later Maj) William E.S. Furby; 26 Sep 1887 Westport – 4 Apr 1981; single clerk of Stratford; 10/657 D Coy WIB. Furby seems to have been an unpopular officer. Oswald T. Meenken diary, 4–7 Jan 1915, Menken family.

  Work lacking interest.

  Mother of C.B. Lepper. Pte (later Lt) Charles B. Lepper, MC MM; 2 Mar 1893 New Plymouth – 20 Feb 1959; single farmer of Lepperton, Taranaki; 10/868,1st Refts WIB, later with 37th Refts; WIA Gallipoli; WWII HG 1940– 42.

  Georges Clemenceau, 28 Sep 1841 – 24 Nov 1929, leading French politician and premier from 1917 to 1920. He played a key role in the Allied war effort.

  This comment and other material in two earlier letters suggest that Ida was perhaps not at first totally reconciled to her husband’s decision to volunteer for the NZEF. WGM to IKM, 6 and 17 Sep 1914 (not published), MSX 2548, ATL.

  In the NZEF embarkation orders dated 29 Aug 1914, Malone is named as the officer commanding troops on the Arawa. NZEF Embarkation Orders, 29 Aug 1914, MFCL. Colonel G.N. Johnston was later given this post, in part, it seems, because of Malone’s complaints about the arrangements on the troopship. Telegrams QMG 149, 153, Device to F.E. Johnston, 14 Sep 1914, AD1, 25/19/20, ANZ.

  Col Sir James Allen, 10 Feb 1855 – 28 Jul 1942, Minister of Defence 1912–20.

  Fd Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, KG KCB KCMG 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, 24 Jun 1850 – 5 Jun 1916; British general and politician led the reconquest of the Sudan in 1896–98. Commanded British forces in South Africa 1900–1902, Secretary of State for War 1914–1916.

  Spanish, we will see what we will see.

  To pursue your own course.

  This is the only mention by WGM of his first wife, Elinor, in his letters and diaries.

  Capt (later Lt-Col) Norman C. Hamilton, RASC, DSO OBE mid(4); 2 Aug 1879 Wales–?; single soldier of Palmerston North; 5/106, NZASC, later OC NZASC, served NZ 1913– 17; SA War.

  Brian Malone was serving with the Army Service Corps (ASC) component of the New Zealand force that had sailed on 15 Aug 1914 to seize German Samoa.

  SS Arawa was one of three Shaw Savill & Albion’s vessels requisitioned by the NZ Government on 10 Aug 1914. Built in 1906, the twin-screw steamship usually carried cargo and 220 passengers (in three classes) between NZ, Australia and the UK. For this voyage she was refitted for 49 officers, 1218 men and 200 horses. Arawa also conveyed the 30th Reinforcements in Oct 1917. S.D. Waters, Shaw Savill Line: One Hundred Years of Trading (Christchurch, 1961), p.88.

  Capt H. Clayden was master of Arawa from 1908 to 1919. He then became Shaw Savill & Albion’s Marine Superintendent, South Island, and died in 1924. Waters, pp.88, 106.

  Lt-Col (later Brig-Gen) George N. Johnston, RA, CB CMG DSO mid(8) LH; 2 Aug 1867 Canada – 3 Apr 1947; married soldier of Wellington; 2/391, OC NZFA, later CRA NZ Div, GOC Admin NZEF.

  Originally the convoy was to sail on 25 Sep, but concerns about the threat posed by the German Navy’s East Asiatic Squadron led to its departure being delayed, McGibbon, Path, pp.249–53.

  Capt (later Lt-Col) Edward P. Cox, mid(2); 26 Oct 1886 Wanganui – 21 Jan 1959; single accountant of Hawera; 10/659 C-Coy WIB; WIA 1915; postwar OC 11th Regt, WWII OC ASC coy 1942.

  Sgt-Maj (later temp Lt-Col) John B. Parks, MC mid; 25 Mar 1885 England–?; married soldier of Wellington; 10/90 HQ WIB.

  Col (later Maj-Gen Sir) Edward W.C. Chaytor, NZSC, KCMG KCVO CB CMG mid(7)Nile; 21 Jun 1868 Motueka – 15 Jun 1939; married soldier of Wellington; 15/6, AG HQ NZ Div, later OC NZMR Bde and Anzac Mounted Div, SA War, GOC NZ Military Forces 1919–24.

  See Lady Liverpool to Mrs Malone, 16 Oct 1913, MFCL.

  Attack verbally.

  Allen shared some of Malone’s concerns, see Telegram Device to F.E. Johnston, 14 Sep 1914 and Allen to QMG, 24 Sep 1914, AD1, 25/19/20, ANZ.

  Now Sanson, 24 kilometres north-west of Palmerston North. In Jan 1914 WGM had purchased a new Buick touring car at a cost of £335. Invoice, 29 Jan 1914, MS-Papers-11408-22, ATL.

  L/Sgt (later Sgt) George G. Lowe; 18 Apr 1890 Timaru – 17 Jan 1956; single PWD draughtsman of Stratford; 10/703 C-Coy WIB.

  Alexander W. Reid, 1853–1938, developed the AWR milking machine and a prominent person in Stratford, Ron Lambert and Neil Henry, Taranaki: An Illustrated History, 2nd ed. (Auckland, 2000), pp.125,137. Father of Pte Robert Reid, 10/713.

  There was one other troopship not named by Malone, the Ruapehu.

  Equal to 11 nautical miles an hour or 20 kilometres an hour.

  To be recalcitrant.

  John Ruskin, The Crown of Wild Olive: four lectures on industry and war, first published in 1888.

  Lt (later Maj) James McD. Richmond, DSO MC mid(4); 17 Apr 1888 Wanganui – 27 Oct 1918; single soldier of Wellington; 2/311 NZFA, OC Bty, later Bde-Maj; KIA France.

  Chaplain 4th Cl (later Brig) Alfred Greene, MC mid; 3 Nov 1872 Australia – 24 Nov 1950; married Salvation Army officer of Wellington; 10/206 NZ Chaplains Dept, NZEF 1914–20, army chaplain to 1935.

  Men charged with cleaning the deck.

  Sgt William F. Southam; 24 Apr 1882 England – 8 Jan 1963; single tailor of New Plymouth; 10/8 I/c Pioneer Sec WIB.

  Sgt-Maj (later Capt) James T. Dallinger, MC; 6 Sep 1880 England – 22 Jun 1920; single soldier of Hawera; 10/162 QM-Sgt WIB; committed suicide.

  Someone who has (or behaves as though they have) done something notable or are an expert at something.

  Lt (later Major Sir) Ernest S. Harston, KBE, mid; 21 Aug 1891 Thames – 1975; single law student of Napier; 10/1074 B-Coy WIB; Coy Cmdr France, soldier 1909–26, League of Nations Secretariat, British Empire Service League.

  L/Cpl Jack Gilchrist; 31 Feb 1884 Thornbury – 25 Oct 1914; single chemist of Gore; 3/323 NZMC att OIB; DOD at sea. A baseless rumou
r circulated through the convoy that Gilchrist had died as a result of the inoculations. Pugsley, Gallipoli, p.66.

  Maj John W. Brunt; 26 Feb 1862 UK–?; married engineer of Hawera; 10/656 OC C-Coy WIB; later OC Codford Depot, OC Tauherenikau Camp, OC Featherston Camp; SA War, retired to South Africa.

  Maj (later Lt-Col) Edward H. Saunders; 4 Jun 1873 England – 9 Oct 1948; married salesman of Featherston; 10/88 OC D-Coy WIB, later with 38th Refts 2nd draft, OC NZ Base Cairo.

  Capt (later Lt-Col) Charles F.D. Cook, DSO mid(2); 23 Apr 1883 Christchurch – 2 May 1918; single lawyer of Marton; 10/543 B-Coy WIB, later OC WIR; DOD UK.

  Maj (later Maj-Gen) William H. Cunningham, KBE CBE DSO mid(4) Stan; 24 Sep 1883 Wellington – 20 Apr 1959; single solicitor of Wanganui; 10/1085 OC WWC Coy WIB; OC 2nd WIB 1916, temp bde commands 1916– 17, GOC Fiji 1940–42, WIR historian.

  Lt-Col (later Maj Gen) Robert Young, CB CMG DSO mid(6) LH; 5 Jan 1877 UK – 25 Feb 1953; married dentist of Marton; 10/451 OC B-Coy WIB; later OC AIB, CIB then various bde commands; OC Southern Dist 1919–25, NZ Military Forces 1925–31; WWII OC HG 1940–44.

  Maj-Gen (later Gen Sir) Alexander J. Godley, GCB KCMG mid(11) SSWar(4) LH(2) CG(2) WE Cour; 4 Feb 1867, England – 6 Mar 1957; married soldier of Wellington; 15/1 OC NZEF, GOC NZ Military Forces; soldier 1885–1928, serving NZ 1910–19.

  Before.

  Troopship magazine, six issues of 3–6 pages each, published between 24 Oct and 24 Nov 1914.

  Pte (later Lt) Royden L. Okey, MC; 21 Feb 1893 New Plymouth – 30 Sep 1918; single clerk of Stratford; 10/761 HQ WIB, later with 35th Refts; KIA France.

  Capt Frederick W. Okey, QM 11th Regt (Taranaki Rifles) and both related to Lt-Col E.N.L. Okey, VD, OC 11th Regt 1905–10.

  Pte Arthur V. Carbines, mid; 19 May 1880 Auckland – 8 Aug 1915; single musician of New Plymouth; 10/706 C-Coy WIB; KIA Gallipoli.

  Latin, by far the best.

  This rumour sprang from the secret British offer to divert the Australian and New Zealand troops to South Africa to assist in quelling a Boer uprising. Timothy C. Winegard, Indigenous Peoples of the British Dominions and the First World War (Cambridge, 2012), pp.73–74.

  2/Lt Harper M. Lepper, MC, single farmer of Lepperton, Taranaki; Direct Commission in 4th Middlesex Regt, British Army, 1914, died Mesopotania, 9 Apr 1916; brother of Charles. One of five New Zealanders who had been granted commissions in the British Army travelling on the Arawa.

  Cpl (later Sgt) Louis S. Robertson; 6 Apr 1881 Scotland – 9 Jun 1915; single builder of Ohura; 11/454 WMR; KIA Gallipoli; champion wrestler.

  Pte Ernest W. Hine; 7 Nov 1891 Inglewood – 4 Dec 1957; married storeman of New Plymouth; 10/4 C-Coy WIB; WIA Gallipoli.

  Battle of Coronel, off Chile, 1 Nov 1914, the German East Asiatic Squadron defeats a Royal Navy squadron.

  Latin, make haste slowly. In his 1909 military notebook, WGM describes it as a good maxim for soldiers: ‘especially in modern warfare’. WGM 1909 military notebook, MSX-9046, ATL.

  The message was also picked up by the Australian troopship Karoo, Fred Waite, The New Zealanders at Gallipoli (Auckland, 1919), p.20.

  The Emden’s collier Buresk was scuttled after HMAS Sydney caught up with her. C.E. Daw and L.J. Lind, HMAS Sydney 1913–1929: The story of a Light Cruiser (Garden Island, 1973), p.37.

  Capt (later Maj) Francis G. Hume; 17 Dec 1876 England – 5 Oct 1950; married soldier of Dunedin; 2/600 OC 11 Bty NZFA; SA War.

  While there were four engagements at places with this name, WGM is most likely referring to the Battle of Driefontein (also known as Abraham’s Kraal) on 10 Mar 1900, in the campaign to take Bloemfontein; during the South African War, 1899–1902. L.S. Amery, ed., Times History of the War in South Africa, vol. III, (London, 1905) pp.572–86.

  Under an ancient maritime custom, men on a ship who have not crossed the Equator before are called before ‘King Neptune’ and members of his court and are ‘shaved’ with paste or soapsuds and dunked in a pool. A.B. Campbell, Customs and Traditions of the Royal Navy (Aldershot, 1956), pp.38–42.

  Hugh Morrison was a prominent Wairarapa farmer and chairman of the Wairarapa Patriotic Committee.

  Lt Ernest J.H. Webb; 14 Feb 1881 Dunedin – 17 Nov 1914; single doctor of Dunedin; 10/1021 NZMC att WIB; Died of Accident Colombo.

  Pte Harry McDowell, 12/806, one of 20 Auckland Bn men on Arawa. An earlier case, Morrissy, had been left in Colombo. Pte (later Cpl) John W. Morrissy; 28 Sep 1892 England – 20 May 1920; single grocer’s assistant of Takapau; 10/100 D Coy WIB, returned to NZ 29 Dec 1914, rejoined WIB with 3rd Refts; Morrissy died 6 years later of complications from his appendicitis operation.

  To shout or bellow.

  Sgt-Maj Saxon W.B. Foster; 20 Apr 1890 Chatham islands – 21 May 1962; single soldier of Palmerston North; 10/526 D Coy WIB.

  Edward M. Smith, known as ‘Iron sand Smith’ after the industry he advocated in Taranaki. He had come to New Plymouth in 1861 and with experience in the royal small arms factories became armourer in the NZ colonial forces. Later MP 1890–1907, as was his one of his seven sons S.G. Smith 1918–38. A.B. Scanlan, Taranaki People and Places (New Plymouth, 1985), p.181.

  Pte T. Douglas D. Smith; 30 Mar 1890 England – 3 Jul 1916; single dairy factory manager of Rahotu; 10/698 C-Coy WIB; KIA France.

  Before sailing from Wellington WGM purchased ‘two dozen’ French novels, WGM to Mackay, nd, but Sep 1914, (not published) MSX 2548.

  David Lloyd George, 17 Jan 1863 – 26 Mar 1945, British politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1908–15, Prime Minister 1916–22.

  Fd Marshal Sir Frederick S. Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, VC, 30 Sep 1832 – 1 Nov 1914; C-in-C India, Ireland, and of British forces in the South African War 1900, later head of the National Service League that campaigned for a system of compulsory military training like that adopted by New Zealand.

  Hon Capt William D.H. Baillie, 22 Feb 1827 – 24 Feb 1922; MLC for Marlborough 1861–1922, Marl Superintendent, Chairman of Committees. Retired officer, late 24th Regt, politician of Wellington. Punjab Campaign 1849, Parihaka 1881.

  Fatty.

  WGM’s number was actually 10/1039.

  Papanui is a suburb of Christchurch.

  Britain declared war on Turkey on 2 Nov 1914 after the expiry of an ultimatum about Turkish military operations against Russia.

  Maj Charles Shawe; 15 Nov 1878 England–?; single soldier of Wellington; 15/21 NZ Div Censor, later GSO NZ&A Div, rejoined British Army.

  Chapter 2

  A cousin of WGM’s.

  Don and Billy were WGM’s horses, which he had brought from New Zealand after selling them to the NZEF.

  Alexander Wemyss, ‘A Short History of the Contingent Company of the Ceylon Planters’, 67/177/1, Imperial War Museum, London.

  The German East Asiatic Squadron was destroyed in the Battle of the Falkland Islands, 8 Dec 1914.

  Thanks be to God.

  On 18 Dec the Khedive Abbas was deposed and a British protectorate declared. The following day Hussein was proclaimed Sultan of Egypt. Waite, p.326.

  Chap 3rd Cl James J. McMenamin; 15 Aug 1874 Wanganui – 9 Jun 1917; single chaplain of Petone; 6/1215 att CIB, later with 11th Refts, 2 NZ GH; KIA France.

  Capt (later Maj) Francis H. Lampen, NZSC, DSO mid; 29 Oct 1879 India – 5 May 1950; married soldier of London, ex Nelson; 5/250A OC Br Sec NZEF, 2nd Refts OIB, later Bde Maj; WWII HG 1941–42.

  To give a bad time.

  Aged eight years.

  Aged six years.

  Real photograph postcards.

  Maj-Gen (later Gen, Sir) John G. Maxwell, GCB KCMG CVO DSO mid(10) LH Nile WE; 11 Jul 1859 England – 20 Feb 1929; married, soldier 1879–1922; OC Troops Egypt to 1916, later OC Ireland during Easter Rising; OC Northern Command; Sudan, SA War.

  The time when the men were recalled to their quarters.

  Godley had a more realistic approach to the threat posed by sexually transmitted diseases than most senior commanders, Jane Tolerton, Ettie: A Life of Ettie
Rout (Auckland 1992), pp.125–31; Pugsley, Gallipoli, pp.76–78.

  Maj-Gen (later Fd Marshal, 1st Baron of Anzac & Totnes, Sir) William R. Birdwood, GCMG KCB KCSI; 13 Sep 1865 India – 17 May 1951; married soldier of India; OC Anzac, later OC AIF Admin, OC 5th Army, OC Indian Army; NW Frontier, SA War.

  WGM’s attitude towards flags is seen after the Union Jack that draped the coffin of Pte Albert Cooper on 31 Dec or 1 Jan was mislaid. In asking for its return in a notice, Malone said ‘the flag has value other than intrinsic’. This or a New Zealand flag had earlier been sent to him at Awapuni by a Mrs Keswick ‘and the women of Taranaki’ along with a plea for his soldiers to always give ‘the courtesy and respect that is due to women’. NZEF War Diary 1915, Orders No.108, 24 Mar 1915; WGM to Keswick, 4 Sep 1914, (not published) MSX-2548, ATL.

  The infantry of the NZEF was armed with the .303 Magazine Lee Enfield (MLE) (Long) Mark I, but after the Gallipoli campaign this rifle was replaced by the newer Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE). Pugsley, Gallipoli, p.45.

  For the landing on Gallipoli the New Zealand troops replaced their distinctive headgear with peaked caps. Pugsley, Gallipoli, p.120.

  A devotional work, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis; probably the edition with an introduction by H.C. Beeching.

  Godley established a fairly demanding training regime for the NZEF, but clearly WGM considered that more training was necessary. Pugsley, Gallipoli, p.78.

  An Englishman who Malone had met on a tram on 24 Dec.

  Referred to as the ‘Muski’ in Cunningham et al., Wellington Regiment, p.16.

  Maj (later Maj-Gen) Arthur C. Temperley, CB CMG DSO mid(5); 31 Aug 1877 UK – 7 Apr 1940; married soldier of Palmerston North; 10/1130, Bde-Maj, NZ Inf Bde; later GSO3 NZ Div; SA War, NW Frontier, served NZ 1913–17, attaché 1920–35. Temperley was Brigade Major of the NZ Infantry Bde; the bde commander’s principal staff officer.

  Capt (later Maj) John M. Rose, MC mid CG; 1 Aug 1868 Scotland – 12 Jun 1948; married soldier of Palmerston North; 10/692 HQ WIB, later 2i/c Conv Hosp.

  Capt (Brevet Maj) R.E. Coningham, Indian Army; joined the staff of HQ NZ&A Div as GSO3 Jan 1915–Jan 1916; WIA 30 Jul 1915.