{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} {{Infobox military person |name= Leo Gradwell |birth_name=Joseph Leo Anthony Gradwell<ref name="times">{{cite news |title=Mr. Leo Gradwell |work=The Times |page=12 |date=11 November 1969}}</ref> |birth_date=28 July 1899<ref>''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007''</ref> |death_date=8 November 1969 (aged 70) |birth_place=New Brighton, Cheshire, England |death_place=Torbay, Devon |image= |caption= |nickname= |allegiance= {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom |service_years= |rank= Lieutenant |commands=HMS ''Ayrshire'' (FY 225)<br/>HMS ''Thirlmere'' (FY 206) |branch=23px Royal Navy |unit= |battles=First World War<br/>Second World War |awards=Distinguished Service Cross |other_work= }} '''Joseph Leo Anthony Gradwell''' DSC (28 July 1899 – 8 November 1969) was a British barrister, a magistrate and a Second World War Royal Navy volunteer, who in July 1942 against orders, led his own RN-adapted trawler HMS ''Ayrshire'' and three merchant ships from the disaster of Convoy PQ 17 into Arkhangelsk, Soviet Union.<ref name=ObitCathHer/>

==Early life== Gradwell was born in New Brighton, Cheshire, England, the son of solicitor Joseph Gradwell and Gertrude Mary Theresa Taylor.<ref>''1901 England Census''</ref> He was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire and then read classics at Balliol College, Oxford.<ref name=ObitCathHer/> By the time he graduated he spoke six languages. He joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman, serving in the First World War.<ref name=ObitCathHer/>

==Barrister== At the cessation of hostilities, Gradwell was discharged from the Navy and started a pupillage in Liverpool and was called to the bar in 1925. He entered chambers in Liverpool, then practised as an advocate on the Northern Circuit.<ref name=ObitCathHer/> During his spare time, he enjoyed sailing in the Irish Sea<ref name=CBRNP/> and gained a coastal navigation certificate.

==Second World War== At the outbreak of the Second World War, Gradwell was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a lieutenant.<ref name=CBRNP/> He returned to active service in 1942 and was given command of the anti-submarine warfare adapted {{convert|575|long ton}} Middlesbrough-built trawler MS ''Ayrshire'', renamed HMS ''Ayrshire'' (FY 225),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hulltrawler.net/Sidewinder/Vessel%20-%20A/AYRSHIRE%20H113.htm|title=AYRSHIRE H113|publisher=Hull Trawler|accessdate=2 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103170429/http://www.hulltrawler.net/Sidewinder/Vessel%20-%20A/AYRSHIRE%20H113.htm|archive-date=3 January 2014|url-status=usurped}}</ref> with a crew of volunteer fishermen.

Attached as part of the defensive net around Convoy PQ 17, on receiving the third order to scatter on 4 July 1942, Gradwell concluded that as he was heading north to the Arctic ice shelf, he might as well take some merchant ships with him. Leading his convoy of ''Ayrshire'' and three merchant vessels – the Panamanian-registered ''Troubador'', the ''Ironclad'', and the American-registered ''Silver Sword''<ref name=UWW7>{{cite book|author=Richard Woodman|title=Arctic Convoys 1941–1945|date=1994}}</ref> – he proceeded north using only a sextant and the ''Times World Geographic Pocket Book'', as his vessel lacked charts for this part of the Atlantic. On reaching the Arctic ice pack, the convoy found itself stuck fast, so the ships stopped engines and banked their fires.<ref name=UWW7/> Gradwell arranged a defence formulated around the fact that the ''Troubador'' was carrying a cargo of bunkering coal and drums of white paint: the crews painted all the vessels white, covered decks with white linen, and arranged the Sherman tanks on the merchant vessels' decks into a defensive ring, with loaded main armament.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://spectator.com/article/jeremy-clarkson-brings-yuletide-joy-to-the-delingpole-household/ |title=Jeremy Clarkson brings Yuletide joy to the Delingpole household|author=James Delingpole|publisher=The Spectator|date=14 December 2013|accessdate=2 January 2014}}</ref>

After a period of waiting, and having evaded the reconnoitering Luftwaffe aircraft, finding themselves unstuck they proceeded to the Matochkin Strait in Novaya Zemlya.<ref name=CBRNP/> They were found there by a flotilla of corvettes<ref name=CBRNP/> that escorted the four-ship convoy, plus two other merchant vessels, to the Russian port of Archangel, arriving on 25 July.<ref name=ObitCathHer/><ref name=CBRNP>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/Flower/ARTICLES/Poppy/Beardmore-1.htm|title=The PQ 17 Story – The Worst Journey in the World|author=John Beardmore|publisher=CBRNP.com|accessdate=2 January 2014}}</ref> Awarded the Distinguished Service Cross on 15 September 1942, he later went on to command the ASW-adapted whaler HMS ''Thirlmere'' (FY 206).<ref name=uBoat>{{cite web|url=http://www.uboat.net/allies/commanders/6990.html|title=Leo Joseph Anthony Gradwell DSC, RNVR|publisher=uboat.net|accessdate=2 January 2014}}</ref>

==London magistrate== After the end of hostilities, Gradwell returned to his career in court. He was made a stipendiary magistrate on the London circuit at Marlborough Street Magistrates' Court in 1951, where he shared an office in a tempestuous relationship with Edward Robey, the son of comedian George Robey.<ref>{{cite book|title=Gangland Soho|author=James Morton}}</ref> A few months later, he contracted polio; after successful treatment, he returned to his position as magistrate.<ref name=ObitCathHer/> Dealing mainly with licensing cases,<ref>{{cite book|title=British Theatre Since the War|year=1999|url=https://archive.org/details/britishtheatresi0000shel|url-access=registration|author=Dominic Shellard|isbn=9780300076844}}</ref> during his career Gradwell processed the case of Stephen Ward during the Profumo affair,<ref name=ObitCathHer/> committing Ward for trial at the Old Bailey in July 1963.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/century/1960-1969/Story/0,6051,105601,00.html|title=Miss Keeler in court|author=Philip Rawstorne|work=The Guardian|date=17 May 1963|access-date=2 January 2014}}</ref>

After the British publishing rights to Hubert Selby, Jr.'s novel ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' were acquired by Marion Boyars and John Calder in January 1966, Gradwell was the judge for the private prosecution brought by Sir Cyril Black, the then Conservative Member of Parliament for Wimbledon. The public prosecutor brought an action under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act, which Gradwell agreed with, and Gradwell ordered that all copies of the book be destroyed, though that applied only to seized copies within the Magistrate's Court.<ref>Forell, Claude. [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19670325&id=wwgRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XJMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3538,4410128 "A Noble Crusader for Purity."] [http://about.theage.com.au/about.asp ''The Age Literary Review,''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030117065235/http://www.about.theage.com.au/about.asp |date=17 January 2003 }} 25 March 1967.</ref> Expert witnesses spoke, "unprecedentedly,"<ref name=newburn>Newburn, Tim (1992). ''Permission and Regulation: Law and Morals in Post-War Britain.'' London: Routledge, pp. 96–8. [https://books.google.com/books Google Books]</ref> for the prosecution, including the publishers Sir Basil Blackwell and Robert Maxwell.<ref name=newburn/><ref>H. Montgomery Hyde, ''Last Exit To Brooklyn'', ''The Times'', 6 December 1967</ref> The order was overturned by a successful appeal issued by the lawyer and writer John Mortimer: Mr Justice Lane reversed the ruling in 1968.

==Death== Retiring in 1967, Gradwell died at home in 1969, aged 70.<ref name=ObitCathHer>{{cite web|url=http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/14th-november-1969/10/obituary|title=Obituary – Leo Gradwell|publisher=Catholic Herald|date=14 November 1969|accessdate=2 January 2014}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|2}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gradwell, Leo}} Category:English Roman Catholics Category:People educated at Stonyhurst College Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Royal Navy personnel of World War I Category:British barristers Category:20th-century English judges Category:Royal Navy officers of World War II Category:1899 births Category:1969 deaths Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) Category:Stipendiary magistrates (England and Wales) Category:Lawyers from Liverpool