Educated at St. Peter's College, Oxford from 1944 but spent three years as a radio mechanic in the RNVR before taking his degree in 1950. He then joined the HDO where he remained for 21 years firstly as assistant to G.C.Varley and then as 'valued collaborator' in their joint research into the insect populations of Wytham Wood. In 1963 he was appointed University Lecturer in entomology and a Senior Research Fellow of his College. In 1971 he was appointed Lecturer in Forest Entomology and had just started a research programme into Dutch Elm Disease when he died. Amongst other duties Gradwell was Treasurer of the Oxford Entomological Society and the British Trust for Entomology. He was also an expert editor and co-edited the book Dynamics of Populations (1971). He was joint author with G.C.Varley and M.P. Hassell of Insect Population Ecology (1974). There are obituaries in Bull.Brit.ecol.Soc., 4, 1974, p.5 and in Proc.RESL., 39, 1974-75, p.55. (MD 1/03)
Dates
1928 - July 1974