Parliament honours Chunuk Bair hero

A plaque to commemorate Gallipoli hero Colonel William Malone will be unveiled in a newly refurbished wing of the Beehive today.

Family members are travelling from round the world for the ceremony, which will be attended by Prime Minister Helen Clark and Progressive MP Jim Anderton, who has fought for 20 years to have Colonel Malone recognised.

Colonel Malone commanded the Wellington Infantry Regiment, leading it in an attack on the hill of Chunuk Bair in August 1915.

Mr Anderton said Colonel Malone had refused orders from the British to lead an earlier attack across an open field where he had already seen the Auckland regiment slaughtered.

"That is quite an extraordinary thing to do in 1915. He could have been summarily executed."

Instead, Colonel Malone got permission to take the hill before dawn on August 8. His force held it for 24 hours.

He was allegedly killed by a shell from a British destroyer.

By the time reinforcements arrived, there were only 70 of the 760 men of the regiment left and the Allies were forced to retreat.

Colonel Malone's body remained on Chunuk Bair, one of 310 Wellington soldiers with no known grave.

Mr Anderton had for two decades been pushing to see formal acknowledgment of Colonel Malone as a hero, but failed in efforts to gain posthumous medals for him.

Colonel Malone's detailed diary entries of his Gallipoli experience will be presented to the National Library after the unveiling of the plaque in the first floor of the executive building this afternoon.