Boyle Townshend Somerville
| Lieut.; Commander Boyle Townshend Somerville RN | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||
| Born | 1863 | ||||||||
| Died | 1936 | ||||||||
| Residence |
Drishane, Skibbereen, Co. Cork [1893] HMS Egeria [1897] HMS Triton, Chatham [1900] 77 Elsham Road, Kensington, W. [1902] Maxwelton, The Hale, Edgware [1903] HMS 'Sealark' c/o Admiralty, SW [1905] Hydrographic Dept., Admiralty, SW ]1909] [and]; HMS King Alfred c/o GPO London [1915] 30 Markham Square, Chelsea SW3 [1917] The Point House, Castletownsend, County Cork, Ireland [1925] | ||||||||
| Occupation |
armed services archaeologist | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1893.01.13 proposed for election at the next meeting
death noted in Report of the Council 1935-1936
Notes From Elsewhere
Vice-Admiral Henry Boyle Townshend Somerville CMG (7 September 1863 – 24 March 1936) was a British navy officer who was murdered by the IRA.
Somerville joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1877. He trained as a Hydrographic Surveyor, was promoted to Commander on 31 December 1901,[1] Captain in 1912 and Vice Admiral on 1 August 1919. He retired on 2 August 1919. While on surveying duties in the Western Pacific, Somerville built a significant collection of ethnographic artifacts in Solomon Islands - now in Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
In 1908, while surveying in British waters, he read a book suggesting stone circles and standing stones might have astronomical significance. He thereafter devoted much of his time to surveying such monuments in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere, and became a recognised expert in the field of archaeoastronomy. He contributed papers to the Antiquarian magazine.
As part of the late summer 1917 reorganisation of the burgeoning British Secret Intelligence Service, led by Mansfield Smith-Cumming and his de facto deputy, Colonel Freddie Browning, Somerville was appointed as 'officer in charge of the Naval Section within the Secret Service Bureau.' This was the first career naval officer posting to the Secret Service. In February 1919, Somerville wrote a review setting out a number of basic principles for service and encouraging the development of specialist intelligence technical skills within the navy for intelligence gathering and analysis. Also in February 1919, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George "in recognition of valuable services during the war".[2]
After his retirement he returned to the family home at Castletownshend, near Cork in Ireland. On 24 March 1936 he was murdered when four men burst into house and fired a revolver. IRA chief of staff Tom Barry was involved in the shooting.[3][4] The Vice-Admiral was targeted for recruiting local men to join the Royal Navy.[5]
He was the younger brother of the novelist and artist, Edith Somerville, who finished his biography of William Mariner for its posthumous publication.
Born Castletownshend, Co. Cork, Ireland; murdered Castletownshend. Lieutenant 1900; later Vice-Admiral. Retired 1919. Very active naval career. Published on anthropology and archaeology. Member of Percy Sladen Reseach Expedition 1904-7.
Publications
External Publications
Ocean Passages for the World. Published for Hydrographic Dept., Admiralty, by HMSO (1923)
The Chart-Makers. Blackwell & Sons. (1928) Commodore Anson's Voyage into the South Seas and Around the World. Heinemann. (1934)
Will Mariner. Faber & Faber. (1936)
Records of the Somerville Family of Castlehaven & Drishane from 1174 to 1940 (with Edith Anna Somerville). Published by Guy & Co, Cork, 1940
House Publications
Notes on Some Islands of the New Hebrides in JRAI Vol. 23 (1894), pp. 2-21
Ethnological Notes on New Hebrides in JRAI Vol. 23 (1894), pp. 363-393
Songs and Specimens of the Language of New Georgia, Solomon Islands; with S.H. Ray; in JRAI Vol. 26 (1897), pp. 436-453
Ethnographical Notes in New Georgia, Solomon Islands in JRAI Vol. 26 (1897), pp. 357-412
Prehistoric Monuments in the Outer Hebrides, and Their Astronomical Significance in JRAI Vol. 42 (Jan. - Jun., 1912), pp. 23-52
77. Remarks on Mr. Stone's Paper on the Date of Stonehenge, and on the Dating of Megalithic Structures by Astronomical Means Generally in Man Vol. 22 (Sep., 1922), pp. 133-137
Related Material Details
RAI Material
manuscripts, photos
Other Material
PRM field collector