James Edward Maddox AM MM

b. 10/07/1893 Wolverhampton, Staffordshire.  d. 18/09/1954 Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

DATE OF AM ACTION: 27/09/1918 Mundesley, Norfolk.

James Edward Maddox was born in Staffordshire on 10th July 1893, and was baptised at Rodington, Shropshire on 6th August 1893. His parents names were Edward James and Mary Jane. He lived in Lichfield prior to the start of the Great War, where his occupation was a quarryman. He enlisted as a Private in the Shropshire Light Infantry and was promoted to Lance Corporal. He was awarded the MM (LG 9th December 1916), and was then commissioned as a Sergeant on 31st July 1917. He then transferred as a Lieutenant in the 24th Cheshire Regiment where he was a bombing instructor.

After the war, he returned to Lichfield where in 1923, he married Constance Gertrude Whitewick, and they lived their married lives in High Excall, a village outside Wellington, Shropshire. He died in hospital in Shrewsbury on 18th September 1954.

 

AM CITATION:

On 27th September, 1918, Lieutenant Maddox was instructing a class in throwing live bombs. One of the men, after withdrawing the pin from a Mills No. V Mark 1 Grenade, accidentally dropped the grenade in the trench, and then, apparently through fright, fell on it. Lieutenant Maddox, with great presence of mind, immediately pulled the man off the grenade, seized, it, and threw it over the parapet, where it exploded almost immediately. By his prompt and courageous action Lieutenant Maddox undoubtedly saved the man’s life.

 

BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.