page_title: Sir Charles Madden, 2nd Baronet
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Sir Charles Madden, 2nd Baronet / Early life and family / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: HMS WARSPITE of the Eastern Fleet and Flagship of Admiral Sir James Sommerville, underway in the Indian Ocean.
context_page_description: Admiral Sir Charles Edward Madden, 2nd Baronet, GCB followed his father in a career with the Royal Navy that culminated in his serving as the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet from 1963 to 1965.
  A recognized expert in gunnery, Madden helped in the introduction of radar into the Royal Navy. He participated in the Battle of Calabria, the Battle of Taranto, the Battle of Cape Matapan, and the Battle of Crete during the Second World War. Following the war, Madden introduced the General List for officers which abolished many of the distinctions between the executive and other branches within the Royal Navy. He also served as the Chief of Naval Staff of the Royal New Zealand Navy.
  Following his retirement from the Royal Navy, Madden served as Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London from 1969 to 1981.
context_section_description: Madden was promoted to commander in 1939 and was part of the pre-commissioning crew for the new battleship King George V, which was followed by staff work involving British operations in the Baltic Sea and research on the applications of shipboard radar.
  Commander Madden was appointed as the executive officer for the battleship Warspite, the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, in May 1940.  He participated in the Battle of Calabria, the Battle of Taranto, the Battle of Cape Matapan, the Battle of Crete, and the bombardment of Tripoli during operation in the Mediterranean theatre.
  Madden was cited for official praise involving his damage control, fire-fighting, and casualty-relief efforts aboard the Warspite and the cruiser Orion during the Battle of Crete.  An eyewitness account described Madden as being "cool, calm and collected, at least on the outside" during the battle and its aftermath.  Madden also sustained a neck injury during a German bombing attack against the Warspite on 23 June 1941.
  Madden remained with the Warspite during her subsequent overhaul at the U.S. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, from August to December 1941, and following the refit, as the flagship of Admiral Sir James Somerville, the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Fleet, operating in the Indian Ocean beginning in January 1942.
  Madden undertook a two-year stint as the deputy director of the gunnery division within the Admiralty with the rank of acting captain. In late 1944, he took command of the escort aircraft carrier Emperor which, after convoy duty, operated against the Japanese bases in Burma, the Nicobars, and Sumatra as a unit of the Far East Fleet during the closing stages of the Burma campaign.
caption: HMS Warspite
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