Thomas Townsend Somerville, Captain

[olaT]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know anything about this person? Captain Thomas Townsend Somerville.

All I know is that he served as a port control officer in Hull in 1917. That means that he was posted to section H of MI5, which was a part of the Imperial General Staff.

But from which regiment? And does anyone know his vital data?

Ola

[sotonmate]

Ola

There are 4 records at Kew in the Officer service papers WO339,but none with the initials T T. The 4 have a single T and one MIGHT be his.

Numbers are 69988 ; 99158 ; 110044 ; and 111476.

His record might be stowed elsewhere due to his connections with MI5 !

Best wishes

Sotonmate

[olaT]

Cheers Sotonmate,

Will have to look up those entries next I visit Kew.

Ola

[Esskay]

He seems to be a very elusive fellow Ola - there is an entry in the 1901 census that could be him - as a 12 year old pupil at a school in Southwick - to the west of Brighton in Sussex.

Unfortunately the handwriting is awful - it could be Merton House School - but it was in Roman Road

Probably his brother too - 15 year old Frederick L M Somerville

Both boys were shown as born Christiand, Norway. Is this an old name (or a misspelling) for somewhere do you know as it doesn't seem to come up on a google search? My guess was possibly Kristiansand

Cheers

Sue

[Phil Tomaselli]

Ola

This from my (hopefully forthcoming) potted biographies of WW1 MI5 officers:

Somerville Capt T T Spec List (late NCO MFP) (WO 339/69988)

MI5 service: 01/06/1916 to 31/07/1919.

Port Control Hull January 1917.

Port Control Officer Hull September 1917.

Port Control Officer Hull April 1918.

MCO Newcastle August 1918.

Port Control Officer Cardiff, South Wales & Bristol Channel May 1919.

Thomas Townsend Somerville. Born 1888. Civilian occupation: Businessman. Permanent address: Moathouse, Langley, Bucks.

Enlisted in 28th Battalion London Regiment (Artists Rifles) 06/12/1915. Promoted Sergeant 31/05/1916. Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and posted for duty as interpreter 28/09/1916.

Employed as assistant and interpreter to Military Control Officer, Hull (fluent in Danish).

Note from MI5 says: As an NCO Sergeant Somerville is seriously hampered when working with the Aliens Officers, who though of very inferior social status rank as officers. It is therefore in the interests of the service that he should be granted a status that would enable him to overrule their opinions when necessary. Sergeant Somerville is well qualified for a commission: his work has been in every way good and especially attracted the notice of the Inspecting Aliens Officer , Captain Claremont RN, who was particularly struck by exceptional knowledge of all Scandinavian languages.

A further note says: Sergt Somerville’s duties are primarily to assist the Military Control Officer at Hull and, incidentally, being a good linguist, he can either act as interpreter or in many cases can carry out an interrogation and report the result to the MCO……If Sergeant Somerville were given a commission….it would provide us with an officer who could be used temporarily at any port where for reasons of health or urgent necessity the officer doing those duties had to be absent. He would, in fact be the probationer referred to in minute 29 of 121/5003. Sergeant Somerville is single.

Demobilized 25/11/1919.

Please can you let me know why the interest? And do ytou have a photo I can use and/or information about his later career?

Phil Tomaselli

[olaT]

Phil,

Thank you for your answer. please excuse the late answer (I forgot to enable e-mail notifications...).

The reason for my interest in this officer is my research of the Norwegian painter Alfred Hagn (1882-1958). Hagn, a spy in German service, entered the UK in April 1917 and was the following month arrested in London. He was subsequently sentenced to death by a court martial, but the sentence was later commuted and he was expelled from the UK after the war. Somerville was a witness in the court martial, as he controlled Hagn's entry to the UK at Hull.

A biography about Hagn written by me and two other historians will be published this fall, unfortunately in Norwegian. Hagn had a dramatic life, from the avantgarde scene i Paris before WW1, to being sentenced to death during the war and to cooperating with the Germans in Norway during WW2.

We ended up not mentioning Somerville in our book, as he played no large part in Hagns's case. The focus is more on John F. C. Carter, who led the investigation of Hagn in London.

I have no photo of Somerville, only his testimony found in the archives of the the Nowegian Foreign office. It is not presereved in any of the files concerning Hagn's case at the National Archives.

Ola Teige