He was a provincial solicitor from Taranaki and a self-taught, part-time, civilian soldier.
Like so many of the men who helped form New Zealand at the start of the 20th century, he was a hard man - tough and ruthless.
That saved many, many lives. He had no time for fools, whether in the lower ranks or among his superior officers.
Along with his contemporary Guy Russell, it was Malone at Gallipoli who created what has become the self-image of New Zealand servicemen.
He helped form and led the Wellington battalion of the NZEF at Gallipoli in the battles of Anzac Cove, Cape Hellas and Chunuk Bair.
At the last of these three actions he masterminded the attack, held the defence, and eventually died there.
John Crawford is one of New Zealand's leading military historians. He co-edited the monumental work New Zealand's Great War and edited The Devil's Own War - the First World War Diary of Brigadier-general Herbert Hart.
This is as good an account of what it was like to serve in Gallipoli as you are ever likely to read.
Malone was not writing for the general reader and certainly had little of the politician's art of dressing up his story.
His anger and contempt for those who had forfeited his good opinion by their inefficiency, carelessness and incompetence is evident, and there was plenty.
He would have agreed with the historian who described the campaign as devised by a genius but implemented by fools.
For a practising and devout Roman Catholic, it is surprising to discover his strong sense of belief in Empire, King and country; hence the title.
He was a genuine believer it might be his duty to die, and he never resiled from that.
Many of his attitudes ring strange today.
Crawford has done us (and Malone) a service by leaving in some of his values.
For example: ''This war is the redemption of England and will leave the Empire better and greater in every sense.''
How many senior officers from one of the civilian professions would say that today, I wonder.
Such a comment does not actually jar, because it is patently so sincere.
Being from the generation he was, one wonders what Malone would have made of the inclusion of the deeply personal remarks addressed to his wife, which Crawford includes.
This is a beautifully produced book, filled with monochrome photos of Gallipoli.
They give little impression of the heat, dust and flies, but they do show how dangerous it was, with no-man's-land sometimes only 10m across.
New Zealand soldiers in 1914-18 learnt to fight at Gallipoli.
Far more died subsequently in Belgium and France, but there they were no longer innocents being led to slaughter.
If the soldiers of 1914-15 had known what their successors knew in 1917-18, Gallipoli would have been a victory, rather than a shambles.
Malone's training of his men and general example had much to do with the change.
He deserves to be remembered with gratitude.
• Oliver Riddell is a retired journalist.