Sir james somerville biography of rory

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During this timeframe, he was promoted to Rear-Admiral (1933).

Somerville served as the Director of Personnel Services, Admiralty from 1934 to 1936. During WW1, Somerville's expertise in radio communications contributed greatly to his attached units. in 1944 and went on to be the Head of British Admiralty Delegation to Washington from 1944 to 1945.

Force H was also operating in the Atlantic during the sortie of the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, and on 20 March 1941 aircraft from the Ark Royal even sighted the two German ships, but Somerville was unable to catch them before contact was lost.

1941 also saw Somerville active in the Mediterranean.

He joined the Royal Navy at the young age of 15 as a cadet, and rised to the rank of lieutenant in 1904 at the page of 22. He was based in Ceylon, but Admiral Kondo's attacks into the Indian Ocean forced his fleet, unprepared to meet the Japanese fleet at the time, to retreat to the Maldive Islands and eastern Africa (Kilindini, Kenya).

ww2dbaseIn Oct 1944, two months after he was relieved of duty at the Eastern Fleet (with Admiral Fraser as his replacement), he was assigned office duty at Washington DC as the head of the British Naval Delegation.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Somerville was declared fit for light duties. Amongst many other duties on 24 May 1940 Somerville visited the besieged garrison of Calais, getting a first hand account of their situation from Brigadier Claude Nicholson. He saw service in the First World War (1914-1918) and received the D.S.O.

He held this position until 1944. He returned to duty on special service to the Admiralty later that year. in 1916 for his actions at Gallipoli. Following this, he was Flag Captain to Vice Admiral John D Kelly (until 1929).

Somerville married Mary Kerr in 1918 and the couple eventually had one son and one daughter.

The board of enquiry soon completely vindicated Somerville, and any doubts about him soon passed. A strong French naval squadron had taken refuge at Mers-el-Kebir (Oran), and it had been decided that this force must be neutralised (Operation Catapult). He earned the DSO for his achievements at Gallipoli. He was quite correctly seen as being less adventurous than Andrew Cunningham, his colleague in the eastern Mediterranean.

He achieved this by retiring to the secret British base at Addu Atoll, in the Maldive Islands. He received the G.B.E. He was promoted to Commodore in 1932 and took command of the RN Barracks, Portsmouth. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1904.