[2] Promoted to midshipman he was posted to the central battery ship HMS Alexandra, flagship of Admiral Geoffrey Hornby Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1877 and was deployed to Constantinople during the Russo-Turkish War.

[8][9] Her first assignment was to convey Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, on his tour of South Africa from December 1902 to March 1903.

[2] Appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order on 11 August 1903,[11] he joined the Ship Design Committee, which produced the Dreadnought and Invincible-class designs for battleships and armoured battlecruisers, in December 1904 and then became naval assistant to Admiral Henry Jackson, Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy in February 1905.

[2] He became Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord in December 1905 and was advanced to Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 3 August 1907.

[12] Madden returned to sea as commanding officer of the battleship HMS Dreadnought and chief of staff to Sir Francis Bridgeman, commander-in-chief of the Home Fleet in August 1907.

[16] When Admiral Sir John Jellicoe was appointed to take over the command of the Grand Fleet at the start of the First World War, he asked for his wife's brother-in-law, Madden, who had been designated to rejoin the Board of Admiralty as Third Sea Lord, to accompany him as chief of staff.

[29] Madden was appointed First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King on 15 August 1922[30] and was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 31 July 1924.