W.R. O'Byrne, Naval Biographical Dictionary (PRO Library)

Commissioned officers of the Royal Navy alive in 1846:

SOMERVILLE. (RETIRED COMMANDER, 1841. F-P,. H-P., 36.)

GEORGE FIELD SOMERVILLE is son of the late Capt. Philip Somerville, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy in 1797, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the HAVICK, Capt. Bartholomew, attached to the force on the Home station, where he removed, in the following Nov. to the EUGÉNIE, commanded by his father, became Midshipman, in May, 1799, of the OSPREY sloop, Capt. John Watts, and was again, from July, 1800, until April, 1802, and from Dec. in the latter year until Feb. 1805, employed with Capt. Somerville, part of the time as Master’s Mate, in the EUGÉNIE and the NEMESIS 28. He was nominated then Sub-Lieutenant of the NIMBLE brig, Lieut-Commander Thos. Delafour; was made full Lieutenant, 7 May, 1805, into his former ship the NEMESIS, still commanded by Capt. Somerville, on the Newfoundland station; and was subsequently appointed—22 April, 1807, and 6 July, 1808, to the HUSSAR 38, Capt. Robt. Lloyd, and ULYSSES 4l, Capts. Christopher John Williams Nesham, Wm. Maude, Edw. Woolcombe, and Hon. Warwick Lake—11 Nov. 1809, to the CIRCE 32, Capt. E. Woolcombe, under whom he assisted at the defence of Cadiz—and, 12 May, 1813, after two years on half-pay, to the ROTA 38, in which ship he served with his father on the coast of North America and in the West Indies until April, 1814, when he invalided. In the HUSSAR Mr. Somerville witnessed the attack upon Copenhagen; and while Senior of the ULYSSES he co-operated in the reduction of Martinique, and commanded a flat-bottomed boat in the expedition to the Scheldt. He accepted his present rank 16 Sept. 1841.
He is married and has a son, Philip Hodge, a Commander R.N.
AGENTS—Goode and Lawrence.

SOMERVILLE. (LIEUTENANT, 1814. F-P., 19; H-P., 17.)

JAMES BOWEN SOMERVILLE entered the Royal Naval College, 11 Nov. 1811; and embarked, 27 May, 1814, as a Volunteer, on board the AJAX 74, Capts. Robt. Waller Otway and Geo. Mundy; in which ship, after escorting a body of troops from Bordeaux to Quebec, he proceeded to the Mediterranean. In July, 1816, and June, 1817, he became Midshipman (a rating he had attained on board the AJAX) of the ERIDANUS 36, Capt. Wm. King, and SEVERN 40, Capts. Wm. McCulloch, both on the Home station; and on 9 Nov. 1821, at which period he had been serving for some time in the LEANDER 50, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood in the East Indies, he was made Lieutenant into the LIVERPOOL 50, Capt. Fras. Augustus Collier. He returned home in 1892 in the SAMARANG 28, Capt. John Norman Campbell; and was subsequently appointed—1 Oct. 1824, to the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the RAMILLIES 74, Capt. W. McCulloch—21 Jan 1825 and 7 Sept. 1829, to the WINDSOR CASTLE 74, Capts. Hugh Downman and Edw. Durnford King, and ST. VINCENT 120, Capt. Edw. Hawker, both lying at Plymouth—1 May, 1830, to the CALEDONIA 120, Capts. Rich. Curry, Edw. Curzon, and Jas. Hillyar, employed, until the spring of 1833, on various particular services—14 Aug. 1810, to the SOUTHAMPTON 50, as Flag-Lieutenant to Sir E. D. King, Commander-in-Chief at the Brazils and Cape of Good Hope—and, 5 April, 1841, to the command, on the same station, of the WIZARD 10, which vessel he brought home and paid off in 1842. He has since been on half-pay.

SOMERVILLE. (COMMANDER, 1848.)

PHILIP SOMERVILLE entered the Navy, 11 Sept. 1824; passed his examination in 1830; obtained his first commission 15 March, 1841; and was then nominated Additional-Lieutenant of the WELLESLEY 72, Capt. Thos. Maitland. His succeeding appointments appear to have been—in the course of the same year, to the Transport Service—in 1842, to the CORNWALLIS 72, flag-ship of Sir Wm. Parker, again to the Transport service, and to the BELLEISLE 72, Capt. John Kingcome—and, 7 May, 1844, to the COLLINGWOOD 80, fitting for the flag of Sir Geo. Fras. Seymour, Commander-in-Chief in the Pacific. On the paying the latter ship, of which he had been nominated Acting-Commander 8 Feb. 1847, he was officially promoted, 4 Aug. 1848, to the rank he now holds. In the attack upon Canton in May, 1841, he had charge of the boats of the MINERVA, SULIMANY,and MARION transports;* and in Oct. of the same year he was honourably mentioned in the despatches of Sir Hugh Gough for the able manner in which he assisted in landing the troops at the taking of Chusan. † In May, 1842, he was similarly employed at the capture of Chapoo. ‡
* Vide Gaz. 1841, p.2505. † V. Gaz. 1842, p.388. ‡ V. Gaz. 1842, p.3693

SOMERVILLE. (COMMANDER, 1842. F-P,. 16; H-P., 5)

PHILIP HODGE SOMERVILLE is son of Retired Commander Geo. Field Somerville, R.N.
This officer entered the Royal Naval College 2 Feb. 1826; and embarked, 29 Dec. 1827, as a Volunteer, on board the MERSEY 26, Capt. Alex. Barclay Branch, fitting for the West Indies. In Jan. 1828 he removed to the MAIDSTONE 42, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Skipsey, at the Cape of Good Hope; where he became Midshipman, in Jan. 1829, of the SPARROWHAWK 18, Capt. Thos. Sanders. That vessel being paid off in the ensuing April, he was appointed, in May of the same year, Admiralty Midshipman of the ARIADNE 28, Capt. Fred. Marryat, stationed in the Channel. He was employed next—from 9 Aug. 1829 until 3 March 1832, in the NIMROD 20, Capt. Sam. Radford, on the coast of Ireland—from 30 March, 1832, until 16 May, 1833, as Midshipman and Mate (he passed his examination 28 Oct. 1832) in the CALEDONIA 120, Capt. Jas. Hillyar, stationed off Lisbon during the war between Pedro and Miguel—from 18 May, 1833, until 15 Sept. 1837, again in the CALEDONIA under the flag, in the Mediterranean, of Sir Josias Rowley—and from 10 May, 1838, until 16 Jan. 1839, a second time off Lisbon, in the RUSSELL 74, Capt. Sir Wm. Henry Dillon. He obtained his first commission 10 Jan 1840; served from 19 Feb. following until he invalided 21 Oct. 1841, the greater part of the time as First-Lieutenant, in the PERSIAN 16, Capts. Wm. Henry Quin and Thos. Rodney Eden, on the coast of Africa; and on 26 Feb. 1842, was appointed to his former ship the CALEDONIA, bearing the flags of Sir Graham Moore and Sir David Milne at Plymouth. While attached to the PERSIAN he was much employed in her boats, and was in command of them at the capture, 23 June, 1841, after a severe action and a loss of 2 men killed and 1 wounded, of’ the piratical slaver Astræa. For this service he was eventually promoted to the rank of Commander 24 June, 1842. His last appointment was, 31 Jan. 1846, to the WANDERER 12, fitting for the coast of Africa, where he was superseded in Feb. 1847.
AGENTS—Messrs. Chard.

SOMERVILLE (RETIRED COMMANDER, 1840. F-P., 20; H-P., 36.)

WILLIAM SOMERVILLE, born 3 July, 1775, is son of the late Mr. John Somerville, R.N., who was gunner of the GUARDIAN, when that ship ran foul of an island of ice on her passage to New South Wales in 1788.
This officer entered the Navy, 20 April, 1791, as A.B., on board the CATHERINE yacht, Capt. Sir Geo.Young; in which vessel and in the MARY and PRINCESS AUGUSTA yachts, Capts. Hon. P. Perceval, Wm. Browell, and Edw. Riou, he continued employed in the river Thames until transferred, in May, 1796, to the Isis 50, Capts. Robt. Watson and Wm. Mitchell. During that period he assisted in fitting out a variety of frigates and other vessels. In the Isis he was present as Master's Mate in the action off Camperdown 11 Oct. 1797; on which occasion he was placed on board one of the prizes and sent off with her into Sheerness. On 19 Dec. ensuing he accompanied the grand procession of thanksgiving to St. Paul's. He was made Lieutenant, 17 Dec. 1798, into the BABET 20, Capt. Jemmett Mainwaring; was next, in Oct. 1800 (about three months after he had invalided from the BABET), appointed to the ATALANTE sloop, Capt. Anselm John Griffiths; and was subsequently placed in command—15 Aug. 1801, of the RAISON 20, lying at Sheerness, where he remained until April, 1802—10 March, 1803, of the ENTERPRISE receiving-ship off the Tower—and, 19 June, 1806, of the VIGILANT 64, prison-ship at Portsmouth. While serving in the BABET, in the boats of which ship he was at different times actively employed on the coast of France, he accompanied the expedition to Holland (where he landed with the army and witnessed the surrender of the Dutch squadron under Rear-Admiral Storey), and was present in an attack made in July, 1800, on four French frigates, lying in Dunkerque Roads, one of which, La Désirée of 40 guns, was taken. On 29 Jan. 1801, Mr. Somerville, then in the ATALANTE, was severely wounded in the right thigh in boarding a Spanish privateer; in consequence whereof he was under necessity of being sent to the hospital ship at Plymouth. On leaving the ENTERPRISE in May, 1806, he was presented at the hands of Alderman Lucas, Captain-Commandant of the River Fencibles, with a piece of plate valued at 50 guineas, as a token of the acknowledgement of that corps for the essential services he had on occasions rendered it. He resigned command of the VIGILANT 16 Nov. 1812; was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 3 Oct. 1825; and accepted his present rank 1 Oct. 1840.
From Feb. 1813 until April, 1815, Commander Somerville superintended the Marine Society's ship. He has been twice married and has had issue three sons and two daughters.

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