The Maddens Emigrate from England

My mother's family arrived in Fremantle in May 1948 aboard the Asturias.  Apparently there had been some talk about emigrating to Ceylon but World War 2 intervened and irrevocably changed the colonial landscape.

My grandfather, Ambrose Harry Madden, was born in Birmingham, England, on the 27 March 1910.  He had one sibling, Herbert Arthur Madden (1908-1993).  Their father, Herbert Madden (1883-?) had come from Nottinghamshire where he had married Lillian Harriet Howden in 1907.  He was a tramways linesman.

During WW1, Herbert's brother, Arthur, fought with the 23rd (Service) Battalion (2nd Football) of the Middlesex Regiment.  (This was one of the "Pals" battalions formed, in this case, of football players, umpires and fans).  

He was killed on the 22nd March 1918.  This was the second day of the German spring offensive - known to the German Army commanders as the “Kaiserschlacht” (Kaiser's Battle) - which attempted a breakthrough following the collapse of Russia and before US troops arrived in number.

A massive artillery bombardment preceded the surprise attack on 21st March. The German assault was made against the British-held Front Line for a distance of 50 miles. The defenders of the British Third and Fifth Armies were up against a superiority in troop numbers of three to one; 26 British divisions were up against 62 German divisions, with an accompanying strength of 6,600 German artillery pieces compared to 2,600 British guns. The attack divisions were trained in the techniques of aggressive assault as storm troopers and there had been training in the co-ordination of command between the infantry and artillery.

The attack was finally halted at Villers-Bretonneux by an Australian surprise night attack featuring no preliminary bombardment on the 24th April.  Brigadier General Grogan VC, who saw the action, described the successful counter attack by night across unknown and difficult ground, and at short notice as "perhaps the greatest individual feat of the war".

Photo: Chris Ford (chris_ford@btinternet.com), who contacted me via Ancestry.com.  There are 5-6 Middlesex soldiers buried together.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes one of them as having died during an enemy air raid.  Perhaps they all did.

At 16yo, Harry began an electrical apprenticeship with Birmingham Corporation, which operated the fourth largest tramways network in the UK.

Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 inches. It was the fourth largest tramway network in the UK after London, Glasgow and Manchester.

There were a total of 843 trams (with a maximum of 825 in service at any one time), 20 depots, 45 main routes and a total route length of 80½ miles (129.6 km).

Birmingham Corporation built all the tramways and leased the track to various companies.

Birmingham was a pioneer in the development of reserved trackways which served the suburban areas as the city grew in the 1920s and 1930s.

-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

Harry married Charlotte Ball on the 23rd February 1933.   She was the youngest of 10 children, the daughter of Henry William Ball (1864-1919) and Charlotte Pearsall (1867-1956).  The marriage citation reads:

Married at the Methodist Church, Aburn Park Road, Taetley, Birmingham.

Ambrose Harry Madden, 22, 83 Nasby Road, Washwood Heath. Father Herbert Madden, Linesman.

Charlotte Ball, 24, 257 Thimblemill Lane, Nechells. Father Henry Ball (deceased), Tool-maker.

Detail: 38/1933

At a cricket match before the War.

Harry and Lottie had two daughters before WW2: my mother Pearl Lillian Madden (1934-2010) known as Billie, and Gloria Ruth (1935-) known as Bobsey, nicknames adopted from the children's book series Billie and Bobbsey.   Spelling was adapted to allocate a sequential number of "b's"; the third daughter, Hadassa Mary, born after the War in 1946 is known as Bubbles!

Harry's occupation prevented him from enlisting when the war commenced.  But somehow, in December 1941, he joined the Royal Navy as an Electrical Artificer.  The family wouldn't see him again for five years.

He joined HMS Maidstone, a submarine depot ship, which carried all the spares, equipment, engineers and tradesmen to maintain the submarine flotilla.  As such, she was a prime target.  

Her equipment included a foundry, coppersmiths, plumbers and carpenters shops, heavy and light machine shops, electrical and torpedo repair shops and plants for charging submarine batteries. She was designed to look after nine operational submarines, supplying over 100 torpedoes and a similar number of mines. Besides large workshops, there were repair facilities for all material in the attached submarines and extensive diving and salvage equipment was carried. There were steam laundries, a cinema, hospital, chapel, two canteens, a bakery, barber's shop, and a fully equipped operating theatre and dental surgery.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Maidstone_(1937)

In 1942 she was stationed in Algiers in the Mediterranean, the main Allied naval base.   Harry managed to sneak one past the censors: on the back of this photo, which he posted home, he wrote his location:

HMS MAIDSTONE, submarine depot ship, berthed in the harbour at the North African port of Algiers.  Lying alongside are two famous submarines, SAFARI and SAHIB.  So great were their successes against Axis shipping, that they were known as the "Old Firm" and "Foundation members" to the rest of the Royal Navy.

As the war in the Mediterranean wound back, the Maidstone and her submarines relocated to Fremantle, Western Australia, in August 1944.  Fremantle was the second largest submarine base of the war, after Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.  Half of the Japanese tankers sunk were torpedoed by submarines operating out of Fremantle.   (There is still a suburb called Naval Base, near Garden island, from where part of the operations were conducted.  It is still the Royal Australian Navy's main submarine base).  From what I've read, the British submarines had a trying time operating in the tropics, their design and small size more suited to the Mediterranean and coastal Europe.

On the 17 January 1945, a scorching hot day, while Maidstone was in the harbour, the MV Panamanian caught fire while loading flour.  The blaze was caused by welding which set fire to a sack.  This was immediately thrown overboard but oil on the water ignited.  The Maidstone caught fire from the bow to the bridge and, with her cargo of torpedoes and ammunition, was hurriedly towed out into Gage Roads.  The fire was fought for two days by all the city and armed forces brigades; one firefighter was killed and 400m of wharf destroyed.  The Fremantle fire focused worldwide attention on the problem of oil coating harbour waters.  (See the attached pdf "Crisis in the Port of Fremantle").

FREMANTLE, WA. 1945-01-17. THE MERCHANT VESSEL PANAMANIAN ON FIRE IN THE HARBOUR. AHEAD OF HER IS THE BRITISH SUBMARINE DEPOT SHIP HMS MAIDSTONE AND TWO AMERICAN SUBMARINE TENDERS WITH SUBMARINES ALONGSIDE. TWO AMERICAN FRIGATES ARE ON THE EXTREME LEFT. RIGHT OF CENTRE A SHIP IS TOWED CLEAR BY A TUG. (NAVAL HISTORICAL COLLECTION).

In April 1945, relieved by HMS Adamant, Maidstone went to Sydney then to the Phillipines, her workshops and technical crew no doubt required for maintaining the allied fleet.  Following the Japanese capitulation, the Maidstone and six submarines entered Hong Kong for the surrender.  She then returned to Fremantle via Macassar with allied POWs.  Huge crowds greeted her upon arrival.

The Captain wrote:

September 30th – Persistent head winds having been encountered, did not arrive FREMANTLE until 1300, about 3 hours late, and proceeded to berth at NORTH WHARF astern of “ADAMANT”. The crowd and reception that greeted us can only described as stupendous, accentuated by it being a Sunday afternoon, the first warm fine day after several weeks rain and the first occasion the Wharf had been opened to the public.

Most efficient and expeditious arrangements had been made for disembarking the Prisoners of War to Hospital and to H.M.A.S. “LEEUWIN” Depot, where they were kitted up and paid.

Leave was given to “MAIDSTONE’s” Ship Company for the first time for almost 5 months, the last occasion having been at SYDNEY on May 3rd, no leave was possible at SUBIC or HONG KONG. It is gratifying to be able to say their conduct was exemplary, only one leave breaker and two minor Patrol Reports.

HMS Maidstone coming into Fremantle Harbour, September 1945

Pulling into the quayside Fremantle, Western Australia

The local newspaper records:

HMS MAIDSTONE SAILING TOMORROW. Comforts for Navy Ex-P.O.W.

HMS Maidstone, the British submarine depot ship, which arrived at Fremantle on September 30 with 440 officers and ratings of the Royal Navy on board who had been prisoners of war at Macassar (Celebes), will sail from Fremantle tomorrow at 10 am for England, via South Africa. The men were members of crews of the British naval ships Exeter, Encounter, Electro, Stonghold, Jupiter, Anking and Francol, all of which were lost in action in the Java Sea early in 1942. All these men will return to England in the Maidstone.

Since the men have been in this State, they have been fitted out with new clothes and have visited various country centres. When they leave Fremantle tomorrow, each man will carry with him an Australian Red Cross hospitality parcel containing tins of fruit, tomato juice, rabbit and condensed milk and two packets of sweets.

HMS Maidstone with her submarine flotilla came to Fremantle in August, 1944. Relieved by HMS Adamant, the Maidstone went to the Philippines in April of this year, and after the capitulation of the Japanese, was stationed at Hong Kong. Returning to Fremantle, the ship was diverted to Macassar to pick up the prisoners of war.

- The West Australian Wednesday 24 October 1945

When Maidstone departed, the Captain wrote:

October 25th – “MAIDSTONE” sailed from FREMANTLE at 1015 for SIMONSTOWN.

Although it was the middle of the forenoon of a working day, a crowd of quite unexpected dimensions and an Australian Army Band were present, and we had a terrific send off. Our Irish Chief Boatswain’s Mate was heard to remark that he’d never seen anything like it in one of H.M. SHIPS, and I certainly have not. The paying off pendant was hoisted as we got clear of the jetty and the hands fallen for leaving. We cleared the harbour in a deafening cacophony of ships’ sirens and the whistles of all the locomotives in the port, who must have nearly precipitated another coal shortage by their expenditure of steam.

The port of FREMANTLE has indeed been a second home port for the Depot Ships and Submarine Flotillas and all left WESTERN AUSTRALIA with warm recollections of the unbounded hospitality, kindness and generosity which we have received.

Doubtlessly, this influenced my grandfather's decision to return to Western Australia.

Harry was discharged from the RN in February 1946 from HMS Vernon at Portsmouth.  Mum said that he couldn't settle down to his pre-war life.  In May 1947 he applied, as an ex-serviceman, for "Free passage to Western Australia".   He cited as a friend Mrs Brown, 17 Prospect Place, Perth (near the present Graham Farmer Freeway Tunnel).  He was prepared to move with two months notice.  The photo is of the family catching the train in Birmingham for Southhampton to board the SS Asturias: my mother, Billie holding Bubbles, Bobsey leaning on the train, and Harry and Lottie in the doorway.

The Maddens arrived in Fremantle arrived on 16 May 1948.  The local newspaper records the Asturius arrival:

1,100 MIGRANTS FOR W.A.

Asturias Arrivals

Of 44 full-fare passengers, 601 assisted and 713 free-passage British migrants and 128 Maltese who will reach Fremantle in the H.M.T. Asturias on May15, 1,100 of the migrants will be for this State.  The Minister for Lands (Mr. Thorn) said yesterday that their nominators had been advised.

The Asturias is expected to arrive in Gage Roads from Southampton about 4 p.m. and berth at Victoria Quay about8 a.m. the following day (May16). An announcement concerning the reception of the migrants will be made as soon as possible. The ship will disembark all passengers at Fremantle and return to England via Bombay.

- The West Australian  Wednesday 5 May 1948

The family stayed with friends in Perth for a while, sleeping on the verandah because of the heat, before moving to Katanning where Harry worked as an electrician.  Mum said that if Harry had suggested returning to England in the first 10 years of their new life, Lottie would have jumped at it.  Conditions for immigrants building a new life weren't easy.  The girls, though, loved it.  

Later they moved to Harvey where Mum worked in Chidlow's Pharmacy.  Mum and Dad first met in the Kia Ora Tea Rooms.  Mum said that Dad was as black as an aborigine - he'd just returned from working at Carlindie Station in the Pilbara.  A week or two later, they met again at a dance in Yarloop.  She asked him to take her home!    

Wedding of Billie and Laurie McMillan, 1st October 1955.  Harry and Charlotte Madden, Best man Ron Taylor, Archibald and Gertrude McMillan.  Flower girls Susan Patroni, Annette Fryer, Bubbles (Haddessa) Madden, Jill Peters.  (There wasn't a bridesmaid because the Catholic Church wouldn't allow Mum's friend, Aileen, to enter a Protestant church)

Harry and Lotte circumnavigated Australia (clockwise) in the late-60s, before it became fashionable for "grey nomads", which would have been a tough trip before Highway 1, the longest national highway in the world, was sealed.  For instance, the Eyre Highway in South Australia, across the Nullabor Plain, wasn't sealed until 1976.  Harry worked as an electrician as he travelled.  He wired up the hotel in Halls Creek; the owner had all the materials needed but was unable to get any tradesmen to travel to the remote locality to do it.  They received free lodging and meals, I heard.  He also worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme in southern NSW. 

Harry and Lotte setting off on their 'round Australia trip. 

This car kept overheating, so they eventually replaced it with a Ford F-series ute.

Harry died in Esperance, Western Australia, in 1972 and his ashes were scattered over the Southern Ocean.  Lottie then lived with us in Harvey for some time, then at Hocart Lodge Aged Centre in town.  She died in Bunbury in 1992.

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References

Recovery of POWs from Macassar by the HMS Maidstone 1945:  web page from http://www.pows-of-japan.net/index.html