Lynch Maydon

Who was Lynch Maydon?

Lieutenant-Commander Stephen Lynch Conway Maydon, DSO and bar, DSC, RN was a British Navy officer and politician who had a brief career in government.

Maydon's father John, after whom Maydon Wharf in Durban is named, was a member of the Natal Legislative Assembly and he was born there. He however moved to Britain at the age of 4 after the death of his father and was brought up in Britain and schooled at Twyford School near Winchester. He showed an early interest in the Royal Navy, enlisting in 1931, and studied at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. During the Second World War Maydon commanded submarines HMS L26, HMS Umbra and HMS Tradewind. Commanding the HMS Tradewind, he torpedoed 14 Japanese vessels, none of which were fighting ships. One of these, torpedoed on September 18, 1944, was the Junyō Maru, on its way from Java to Sumatra, carrying 1,450 mostly Dutch POW slave laborers and 4,200 Javanese slave laborers. 5,620 of those on board died, making this the biggest single action friendly loss of life in history and the highest death count in history from a single British action. Maydon was married to Joan until his death.