This Is Your Life: Edwin Madron

Edwin MADRON (1896-?)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE – Edwin Madron, lifeboat coxswain, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, having been led to believe he was there to have some publicity photographs taken on the eve of London's Lifeboat Day.

Edwin, the son of a fisherman, was born in Mousehole, Cornwall, and grew up working on his father's fishing boat before purchasing his own. Edwin joined the Royal Naval Reserves during the First World War and was on active duty with the battleship HMS Canopus. Back in Mousehole after the war, he volunteered with the local Penlee lifeboat, and in 1932 he was appointed Second Coxswain.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the Royal Navy commandeered Edwin and his boat, and as Chief Petty Officer Madron, he patrolled the coastline for the duration of the war. He was made coxswain of the Penlee lifeboat after the war and was awarded the RNLI Silver Medal for rescuing eight men from HMS Warspite in 1947 when she ran aground on her way to the breaker's yard. In total, Coxswain Madron and his crew saved the lives of 68 men.

programme details...

Edition No: 29
Subject No: 29
Broadcast live: Mon 18 Mar 1957
Broadcast date: 7.30-8.00pm
Venue: King's Theatre, Hammersmith
Series: 2
Edition: 14

on the guest list...

Fred Richards
Phil Chivers
Joe - brother
Stella Bartlett - daughter
Richard Bartlett - son-in-law
Jimmy - son
Edwina Bartlett - granddaughter
Bill Curtis
Ann Curtis
Rodney Wells
Owen Kernick
Johnny Drew - live link
Jack Worth - live link
Jack Wallis - live link
Abram Madron - live link
Ben Jeffrey - live link
Clarence Williams - live link
Joe Madron Jnr - live link
William Davis
William Dicken
William Elcock
Capt Alex Baxter

production team...

Researchers: Peter Moore, Nigel Ward
Writer: Gale Pedrick
Director: unknown
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

related pages...

Life Savers

heroes of the emergency services

Stories behind This Is Your Life

a review of the second series

This is Leslie Jackson's Life

Interview with the first producer of This Is Your Life

What goes on behind that Green Door

Behind-the-scenes with the production team

Photographs of Edwin Madron This Is Your Life

Newspaper article - unknown source: Edwin Madron This Is Your Life

Unknown source 19 April 1957

'This Is Your Life' snared a cox'n

LORD TEDDER WAS IN PLOT

By PHILIP PURSER

LIFEBOAT Coxswain Edwin Madron strolled into what he thought was a lecture hall in London last night.

Then he found himself blinking in the glare of TV arc lights.

For Coxswain Madron was the 'victim' of the most elaborate web of deception the BBC has yet spun for its This Is Your Life programme.

Two tickets to Saturday's Rugby match at Twickenham, a television theatre disguised with borrowed flags and posters, and split-second timing all played their part.

Co-operating with the BBC in the hoax were Marshal of the RAF Lord Tedder and Lady Tedder. It was they who invited Cox'n Madron to London for the weekend and asked him if he would stay till Monday evening and come with them to a lifeboat meeting.

Said Lady Tedder: "We told Mr Madron that it would be a bit of a do about lifeboats. My husband might have to say a few words. Mr Madron might have to say a few words. And that's really what it was."

Great deception

The great deception began the moment the producers of This Is Your Life decided they wanted to feature a cox'n for their eve of Lifeboat Day edition.

Sixty-year-old widower Madron, of the Penlee boat, near Mousehole, Cornwall, hero of the famous Warspite rescue ten years ago, was an ideal choice.

He was awarded the RNLI silver medal for saving eight men from the stricken warship which was on her way to the breaker's yard.

In all 68 men owe their lives to Coxswain Madron and his crew. He is a fisherman who lives by the sea. His father and a son were drowned by the sea.

In disguise

But Mousehole (pop. 1,400) is a small community. Coxswain Madron was well known as a keen viewer of This Is Your Life who had often wondered aloud how the "victims" were lured to the studio. He would be extra suspicious.

He was given the Rugby tickets to make sure that he left Mousehole by Saturday - so that his family and friends appearing on the programme could leave for London the next day without his knowledge.

And the King's Theatre, Hammersmith was disguised as a "town hall". There were Lifeboat Institution banners and notices – and other routine notices of dances and meetings borrowed from Hammersmith town council.

It was not until Eamonn Andrews advanced with outstretched hand and announced: 'this is your life' that Coxswain Madron realised that it was his life.

Series 2 subjects