Charles Edward Madden, First Baronet

Admiral Sir Charles E. Madden, Bart.
Photo: Public Domain.

Admiral of the Fleet SIR Charles Edward Madden, First Baronet, O.M., G.C.B., G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G., Royal Navy (5 September, 1862 – 5 June, 1935) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the First World War.

Early Life & Career

Madden was born at Brompton, Gillingham, Kent, 5 September, 1862, the second son of Captain John William Madden, of the Fourth (King's Own) Regiment, by his wife, Emily, second daughter of John Busby, of Kingstown; he was descended from a long line of Anglo-Irish families. He entered the Britannia as a naval cadet on 15 January, 1875 and on promotion to Midshipman in 1877 was sent to the Alexandra, the Flagship of (Sir) Geoffrey Hornby, in the Mediterranean, and served in her throughout that famous command. In 1880 he went to the Ruby, a corvette in the East Indies Squadron, for two and a half years, being promoted Sub-Lieutenant in her in 1881. Soon after promotion to Lieutenant in 1884 he decided to specialize in torpedo and spent two years in the Vernon torpedo school with an additional six months as staff officer of that establishment. In 1892 he was appointed Torpedo Lieutenant of the Royal Sovereign, Flagship of the Channel Squadron, and in 1893 resumed his post as staff officer of the Vernon until promoted Commander on 30 June, 1896. After three years at sea as commander of the cruiser Terrible and the battleship Cæsar he returned to the Vernon in 1899 for a further two years, being promoted Captain in June, 1901. A year later he became, for two years, Flag Captain in the Good Hope to Admiral (Sir) Wilmot Hawksworth Fawkes, who had been his captain in the Terrible and since been naval Private Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty. During this service he took Joseph Chamberlain on his memorable visit to South Africa at the end of 1902.

In February, 1905 Captain (Admiral of the Fleet Sir) Henry Jackson was brought by Lord Selborne from the command of the Vernon to the Admiralty as Third Sea Lord and Controller. Jackson was the greatest scientific naval officer of his generation, and asked for Madden, now a leading torpedo specialist, to be his naval assistant. It was the time of the great reforms of Sir John Fisher in fleet redistribution, dockyard administration, and shipbuilding policy, and Madden soon became one of his most trusted instruments in carrying them out. Fisher had already, in the previous October, named Madden to Lord Selborne as one of the "five best brains in the navy below the rank of admiral" and in December, 1904, secured his appointment as a member of the epoch-making Committee on Designs which produced the Dreadnought and Invincible designs for battleships and armoured cruisers (later styled battle-cruisers). A year later he made Madden his own naval assistant, a post which he held until August, 1907. During those stormy years Madden's sound judgement and cool common sense were of the utmost value to his great chief. He was then glad to get to sea again, this time as captain of the Dreadnought herself, and as Chief of the Staff to Sir Francis Bridgeman, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet. In December, 1908 he was brought back to Whitehall, first as private secretary to Reginald McKenna until January, 1910 and then as Fourth Sea Lord until December, 1911.

When discussing the composition of a new Board of Admiralty in 1909, Fisher wrote to McKenna:

I still cling to Madden as Controller, and Jellicoe is in full accord. Briggs, the only [other] possible, is not to be compared with Madden and would be nowhere for months! simply an automaton signing papers! Besides, I don't see how you are going to get rid of Winsloe so early as January, so the Fourth Sea Lord would not be vacant for Madden.

On 1 January, 1910, Madden was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to King Edward VII, vice Beatty.

Flag Rank

Madden was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral on 12 April, 1911. He had had unusually short sea service as a post-captain, and only fourteen months' fleet experience, but he was now to be at sea continuously for over eleven years as a flag officer in the main British Fleet, including the whole period of the war of 1914–1918. He commanded the first division, Home Fleet (flag in the St. Vincent) during 1912, the third cruiser squadron (flag in the Antrim) during 1913, and then the second cruiser squadron (flag in the Shannon) until the eve of the outbreak of war. In May, 1914, it was announced that in August Madden would succeed Rear-Admiral A. G. H. W. Moore as Third Sea Lord. He turned over his command to Rear-Admiral the Honourable Somerset A. Gough-Calthorpe on 29 July at Chatham, and was appointed to President for Special Service at the Admiralty.

First World War & the Grand Fleet

When Admiral Sir J. R. (afterwards Earl) Jellicoe was appointed to take over the command of the Grand Fleet he asked for his wife's brother-in-law, Madden, who had been designated to rejoin the Board of Admiralty as third sea lord and controller, to accompany him as chief of staff. Madden was accordingly sent to the Iron Duke (Jellicoe's flagship) on 4 August 1914 and remained in her until Jellicoe became first sea lord in November 1916, having been promoted acting vice-admiral in June 1915 and confirmed in that rank on 10 June, 1916. In Jellicoe's Jutland dispatch of 18 June 1916 Madden's brilliant work as his chief of staff was recorded thus: "Throughout a period of twenty-one months of war his services have been of inestimable value. His good judgment, his long experience in fleets, special gift for organization, and his capacity for unlimited work, have all been of the greatest assistance to me, and have relieved me of much of the anxiety inseparable from the conduct of the fleet during the war. In the stages leading up to the fleet action and during and after the action he was always at hand to assist, and his judgment never at fault. I owe him more than I can say." During his time as Chief of the Staff, Madden went to sea in command, for example taking the First Battle Squadron for exercises west of the Orkneys on 23 September, 1915, and again on the 27th.

On the change of chief command in 1916 Madden was appointed to the command of the first battle squadron, as second in command of the Fleet, with the acting rank of admiral (flag in the Marlborough and later in the Revenge), and retained it until April 1919, having been confirmed in the rank of Admiral on 12 February of that year (vice Sir Berkeley Milne). When Sir David (afterwards Earl) Beatty hauled down his flag as Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet and the war organization of the navy was broken up, Madden was appointed to the command of the newly constituted Atlantic Fleet and Home Fleet (flag in the Queen Elizabeth) which he held from 1919 to 1922.

Post-war and Atlantic Fleet

In the autumn of 1919 Madden was created a Baronet and granted £10,000 by a vote of parliament, and on finally coming ashore in August, 1922 he received a letter of appreciation from the Board of Admiralty for "the manner in which he exercised command of the Atlantic Fleet and for his services to the Royal Navy and to the Empire." He was at once appointed First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King and was promoted Admiral of the Fleet in July, 1924. He served in 1923–1924 as chairman of the committee on the functions and training of royal marines, and in 1925, under the chairmanship of Lord Chelmsford, on that for the list of executive officers of the navy. He then retired to Broadstone, Forest Row, Sussex, until July, 1927, when, on the recommendation of W. C. (afterwards Viscount) Bridgeman he was selected to succeed Lord Beatty as First Sea Lord. Two years later he would have been placed on the retired list, but, in order to retain him in office, Bridgeman procured a special order in council to secure his remaining Admiral of the Fleet on the Active List supernumerary to establishment, so long as he held appointment as First Sea Lord.

First Sea Lord

Madden thus returned to the Board after over fifteen years to find very different responsibilities and problems awaiting him. Disarmament was in the air and very strong and persistent pressure was brought to bear on the Admiralty to restrict the shipbuilding programme, which was the principal cause of dispute with the United States of America at the abortive Geneva naval conference at the moment when he assumed office. The Admiralty contention had been and remained that seventy cruisers were required. But Madden had reluctantly to accept Cabinet decisions reducing the previously agreed programme of construction and by the time Ramsay MacDonald's labour government came into power in 1929 it had consequently become impracticable to reach the standard total. With much misgiving therefore Madden felt obliged under protest to assent to a lower standard of fifty which was confirmed in the London naval treaty of 1930. He finally retired from the Board and the Active List in July 1930.

Madden was awarded numerous honours and decorations. He was mentioned in dispatches for service at Suez in 1883, and was appointed C.V.O. in 1907, K.C.B. in January 1916, and K.C.M.G. for his services at Jutland. He received the rank of commander of the Legion of Honour. The Russian Order of St. Anne, the military Order of Savoy, and the Japanese grand cordon of the Rising Sun were conferred upon him in 1917. He was admitted to the rank of grand officer of the Legion of Honour in 1918, and at the end of the war he was appointed G.C.B. and given the Belgian Order of Leopold, the French croix de guerre (bronze palms), and the Chinese Order of the Striped Tiger. He was appointed G.C.V.O. in 1920 and a member of the Order of Merit in 1931. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Cambridge University in 1919, and that of D.C.L. by Oxford University in 1928.

Madden acquired during his long career an intimate knowledge of every detail of his profession and was universally esteemed as a man upon whom complete reliance could be placed in any task which he was set. His manner was modest and unassuming; he was popular and an excellent host: he had no enemies, but did not easily make friends. The parts which fell to him to play during the war of 1914–1918 he played to perfection. As chief of staff to Jellicoe he was responsible for much of the organization of the fleet, and by the care and tact with which he carried out his chief's instructions he contributed largely to its efficiency. While in the closest confidential intimacy with Jellicoe, he was more an interpreter of his views than a contributor to their formation. As Second-in-Command to Beatty, while kept fully informed of all developments and consulted on major problems, he was not a man to put forward or insist on strong views of his own, and difficulties which might have arisen had he been of less loyal personality or more ambitious character were non-existent, although he was over eight years older than Beatty.

As First Sea Lord Madden was ill at ease in dealing with politicians who, without directly challenging the validity of the Admiralty's assessment of the proper standards of naval defence, urged the undesirability of proceeding with ship construction in face of the opposition of the United States of America, and, when MacDonald began his proposals for the conference which produced the London Naval Treaty by accepting the reduction to a total of fifty cruisers, Madden did not feel justified on constitutional grounds in going to the length of resignation as a protest. In private life he was a devout churchman, a thorough sportsman, and was devoted to his family. During his retirement he was greatly interested in local affairs and gave much time to support of the British Legion.

Madden married in 1905 Constance Winifred, third and youngest daughter of Sir Charles Cayzer, First Baronet, and sister of Countess Jellicoe, and had two sons and four daughters. He died in London on 5 June, 1935, and was succeeded as Second Baronet by his elder son, Charles Edward (born 1906).

Madden's portrait is included in Sir Arthur Cope's picture "Some Sea Officers of the Great War", painted in 1921, in the National Portrait Gallery, and there is a charcoal and watercolour drawing of him by Francis Dodd in the Imperial War Museum.

Bibliography

• Dictionary of National Biography.
• "Admiral of the Fleet Sir C. Madden" (Obituaries). The Times. Thursday, 6 June, 1935. Issue 47083, col A, pg. 21.

Papers

• Papers in the possession of the National Maritime Museum.

Images

• 1922 Reginald Grenville Eves portrait in the possession of the Imperial War Museum. Catalogue Number IWM ART 4177.

Service Record

• The National Archives. ADM 196/42.

Naval Offices
Preceded by Sir Alfred L. Winsloe	Fourth Sea Lord 1910 – 1911	Succeeded by William C. Pakenham
Preceded by Richard H. Peirse	Rear-Admiral in the First Battle Squadron 1912	Succeeded by The Hon. Somerset A. Gough-Calthorpe
Preceded by F. C. Doveton Sturdee	Rear-Admiral Commanding, Third Cruiser Squadron 1912 – 1913	Succeeded by William C. Pakenham
Preceded by Sir F. C. Doveton Sturdee	Rear-Admiral Commanding, Second Cruiser Squadron 1913 – 1914	Succeeded by The Hon. Somerset A. Gough-Calthorpe
Preceded by Sir Cecil Burney	Admiral Commanding, First Battle Squadron and Second-in-Command, Grand Fleet 1916 – 1919	Succeeded by Sir Sydney R. Fremantle
Preceded by New Command	Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet 1919 – 1922	Succeeded by Sir John de Robeck
Preceded by The Earl Beatty	First Sea Lord 1927 – 1930	Succeeded by Sir Frederick Field