East & West Africa Medal 1887-99

Obverse: Head of Queen Victoria in a diadem and veil (left). Legend: 'VICTORIA REGINA'. Reverse: a group of soldiers and Africans fighting in the bush for their fallen comrades. Suspended from a bar, and yellow ribbon with a broad black edge and two narrow black central stripes. Bar: 'MWELE 1895-6. [this is an un-official bar as none was issued for this action, the name being inscribed on the edge of medal instead]. Inscription on edge: 'W.J. MADDEN STO, H.M.S. RACOON. MWELE 1895'.
William John Maddern (1871-1938) was born in Penzance, the son of a local fisherman. He joined the Royal Navy on 1 October 1890 as a stoker. He initially spent some time on the Devonport Guard ship ’Indus’ and from September 1891 to 2 November 1893 in ‘Superb’ then guardship on the Clyde. He was in ‘Racoon’ from 13 May 1894 to 2 September 1897 during the Mwele campaign of 1895-96.

British interests had become involved in a local dispute in present-day Kenya, over who should rule Takaungu. In 1895, the succession was disputed by two nephews of Mbarak bin Rachid who failed to give them up after they began local hostilities. An expeditionary force was sent out to take his stronghold of Mwele, previously destroyed in 1882. This included a naval brigade of three hundred seamen and marines from six warships with troops from Zanzibar and Sudan. The expedition reached Mwele on 17th August and took it the same day. Mbarak escaped however and hostilities continued until he surrendered and was exiled.

Maddern had a brief respite from the African climate on Ascension Island in HMS ‘Penelope’ during this period and in 1897 returned to home waters. He had a brief spell on the newly completed HMS ‘Ocean’, the rest of his time was spent in smaller vessels, shore bases, training establishments, or depot ships. He was promoted to stoker Petty Officer from 1 July 1906 and joined the Royal Fleet Reserve in 1912. From that date until 1919, Maddern served on various ships – ‘Australia’, ‘Cerberus’ and ‘Encounter’, which belonged to the newly-formed Royal Australian Navy.
After retirement from the Navy, in 1921 Maddern was working at the government oil tank works at Torpoint, Cornwall. He had married Jane Hillhouse Crawford from Govan in 1901 at Devonport where the family settled. Maddern’s two sons subsequently worked in the dockyard. He died before 1939, a death being registered the year before to a man of that name in the Totnes district.