Melford Stevenson

Sir Aubrey Melford Steed Stevenson, PC (17 October 1902 – 26 December 1987), usually known as Sir Melford Stevenson, was an English barrister and, later, a High Court judge, whose judicial career was marked by his controversial conduct and outspoken views.

After establishing a legal career in the field of insolvency, Stevenson served during the Second World War as a Deputy Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces.

Stevenson was born in Newquay, Cornwall, on 17 October 1902, the eldest child and only son of the Reverend John George Stevenson and his wife Olive, sister of Henry Wickham Steed, journalist and editor of The Times from 1919 until 1922.

The Rev. J. G. Stevenson, a Congregational minister, died when his son was fourteen years old, plunging the family into relative poverty.

An uncle who was a solicitor funded Stevenson's ongoing education at Dulwich College in London, intending that the young Stevenson would join the family firm once his schooling was complete.

There was no money available to allow him to attend university, so Stevenson studied for an external London University LLB degree after becoming an articled clerk in his uncle's legal practice.

The case led to a public enquiry, changes in the law on compulsory purchase, and the first resignation of a government minister since 1917.

According to fellow judge Eustace Roskill, Stevenson's "fluent delivery, distinctive voice, remarkable sense of timing, and pungency of phrase soon marked him out as an advocate of note."

One commentator described him as a "shameless performer" in court.

He was probably the most successful barrister of his day.

Shortly after being called to the bar in 1925 he joined the chambers of Wintringham Stable at 2 Crown Office Row, now Fountain Court Chambers.

He remained there for the rest of his legal career, save for the war years, eventually becoming head of chambers.

Most of Stevenson's early legal work was in the field of insolvencies, "almost always with small fees", and he made steady progress until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

He did very little criminal work in this part of his career.

In 1940 he joined the army and served until 1945 as a Deputy Judge Advocate with the rank of major; he was appointed a King's Counsel in 1943.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s Stevenson started to build his chambers' high reputation for commercial litigation, together with Alan Orr and Leslie Scarman, supported by a notable barristers' clerk, Cyril Batchelor.

He was subsequently Judge Advocate at the 1945 war crimes trial of former personnel of the German submarine U-852 for their actions in what became known as the Peleus affair.

In 1945 he served as Judge Advocate at the war crimes trial in Hamburg of former personnel of the German submarine U-852, the so-called Peleus affair.

The U-boat captain, Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, was accused of ordering his crew to open fire on the survivors of a Greek ship, the SS Peleus, which they had just torpedoed and sunk.

Eck and two of his junior officers were executed by firing squad; he was the only U-boat commander of the war to be convicted of war crimes committed at sea.

He was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1950, and appointed Recorder of Cambridge, a part-time judge, in 1952; he had previously served as Recorder for Rye from 1944 to 1951.

In 1954 Stevenson represented the government of British Kenya during Jomo Kenyatta's unsuccessful appeal against his conviction for membership of the rebel organisation Mau Mau.

Later that year he represented the litigants in the Crichel Down affair, which led to changes in the law on compulsory purchase.

In 1954 he represented the government of British Kenya during Jomo Kenyatta's unsuccessful appeal against his conviction for membership of the rebel Mau Mau; Kenyatta was a moderate, and is now considered unlikely to have been a member of the organisation.

Also in 1954 Stevenson represented the Marten family in the Crichel Down affair.

The Air Ministry had compulsorily purchased land for bombing practice before the war, promising to return it after the end of hostilities.

When they did not honour this promise, the Martens successfully campaigned to be allowed to buy the land back.

In 1955 he defended Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed for murder in the United Kingdom.

He was deeply distressed by the execution of Ellis, for whom there had been no defence in law, but whom Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George was expected to reprieve.

Two years later, Stevenson took part in the unsuccessful prosecution of John Bodkin Adams for the murder of Edith Alice Morrell.

In 1955, aided by junior counsel Sebag Shaw and Peter Rawlinson, Stevenson defended Ruth Ellis against the charge of murdering her lover.

Stevenson became a High Court judge in 1957, and acquired a reputation for severity in sentencing.

He was imprisoned until 1959, lived under house arrest until 1961, and became the first president of the newly independent Kenya in 1964.

He sentenced the Kray twins to life imprisonment in 1969, with a recommendation that they serve not less than 30 years each.

In 1970 Stevenson passed long sentences on eight Cambridge University students who took part in the Garden House riot, and the following year gave Jake Prescott of the Angry Brigade 15 years for conspiracy to cause explosions.

One of his fellow judges, Sir Robin Dunn, described him as "the worst judge since the war".

After Dunn's attack, several high-profile legal figures came to Stevenson's defence, among them fellow judge and biographer Lord Roskill, who pointed out that Stevenson could be merciful to those he regarded as victims.

Lord Devlin described Stevenson as the "last of the grand eccentrics".

Stevenson was determined to become a barrister, and joined the Inner Temple, of which he became the treasurer in 1972.

Mr Justice Stevenson retired from the bench in 1979 aged 76, and died at St Leonards in East Sussex on 26 December 1987.