The collection consists of official service documents; logs, 1923 to 1925; and photograph albums, 1919 to 1923, 1925 to 1927, 1929, 193O to 1932 and 1934 to 1941.

Administrative / biographical background
Madden entered the Navy in 1919. After being a cadet at Osborne and Dartmouth, he went to sea in the training ship HMS THUNDERER (1911) in 1923, the destroyer HMS WARWICK (1917), Fifth Destroyer Flotilla, in the Atlantic, and then the battlecruiser HMS REPULSE (1916) in the Atlantic Fleet. He served in the royal yacht VICTORIA AND ALBERT (1899) in 1927, after which he trained as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. In 1934 he qualified at HMS Dryad, the navigation school at Portsmouth, subsequently serving as navigator for a short period in the battleship HMS MALAYA (1915), Atlantic Fleet, in the sloop HMS SANDWICH (1928), on the China Station, 1934 to 1936, and the light cruiser HMS ORION (1932) in North America, 1939. During the Second World War Madden served in Naval Intelligence and with the Fleet Air Arm. He retired in 1950.