Howard Somervell

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Theodore Howard Somervell OBE (16 April 1890 - 23 January 1975) was a British surgeon, mountaineer and missionary who was a member of two expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s, and then spent nearly 40 years working as a doctor in India.

Contents 1 Early life 2 World War I 3 First Everest expedition 4 Travels in India 5 Second Everest expedition 6 After Everest 7 References

[edit] Early life

Somervell was born in Kendal to a well-off family which owned a shoe-manufacturing business. He attended Rugby School, and at the age of eighteen joined the Fell and Rock Climbing Club, beginning an interest in climbing and mountaineering which would last a lifetime. After completing his schooling, he studied at Caius College, Cambridge where he developed his strong Christian faith and gained First Class Honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos. He then began training as a surgeon at University College Hospital; eventually graduating in 1921 after his training had been interrupted by the First World War.^[1]

[edit] World War I

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Between 1915 and 1918 Somervell served in France with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was commissioned as a lieutenant with the West Lancashire Casualty Clearing Station on 17 May 1915, having previously been a member of the University of London Officer Training Corps.^[2][3] He was Mentioned in Despatches,^[1] but the horrors of the war had a profound effect on him. During the Battle of the Somme in 1916 he was one of four surgeons working in a tent, while hundreds of wounded men lay dying on stretchers outside. On short breaks from surgery, he spoke with some of the dying men, and noted that not one asked to be treated ahead of the others. The experience immediately turned Somervell into a pacifist, a belief he continued to hold for the rest of his life.^[4] He relinquished his commission in 1921, by which time he held the rank of captain.^[5]

[edit] First Everest expedition

By 1922, Somervell had shown himself a capable climber in the Lake District and the Alps, and he was invited to join the 1922 British Everest expedition. During the expedition, he formed a close friendship with George Mallory, and the two famously read Shakespeare to one another in their tent at night.^[6] By May 18th, Somervell, Mallory and two other climbers and several Sherpa porters had established camp on the North Col, at 7020 metres the highest man has ever camped, and prepared to make the first ever attempt on the summit of Everest along the North Ridge and then the Northeast Ridge. Their plan had been to establish a further camp at around 8000 m, but in the thin air it proved impossible to climb as quickly at they hoped, and they were forced to send the Sherpas down and make camp on a cramped ledge at around 7600 m. The following day, exhausted and suffering from frostbite, they reached a height of 8170 m before turning round, realising that they had no hope of reaching the summit before dark. They had set a world altitude record, but such is the scale of Everest that they had not even reached the junction with the Northeast Ridge.^[7]

Over the next few days a second group of climbers Geoffrey Bruce and George Finch, using oxygen, made a second unsuccessful attempt on the summit. With the weakened climbers back at Base Camp (only Somervell was considered fit to continue by the expedition doctor), and the weather becoming worse with the imminent arrival of the monsoon, Somervell and Mallory argued that the team should make a third attempt, against the advice of Charles Bruce, the expedition leader.^[8] On the 7th June, Somervell was part of a party of four British climbers leading fifteen Sherpas through waist-deep fresh snow on the slopes below the North Col. An avalanche occurred, killing seven Sherpas.^[9] Somervell was shocked, and felt great guilt that it was the Sherpas who had paid the price for the poor judgement of the British climbers, writing

"I would gladly at that moment have been lying there dead in the snow, if only to give those fine chaps who had survived the feeling that we shared their loss, as we had shared their risk."^[10]

[edit] Travels in India

With the expedition over, Somervell set out to see India, travelling from the far north to Cape Comorin. He was shocked by the poverty he saw, and in particular the poor medical facilities. At the main hospital of the south Travancore medical mission in Neyyoor he found a single surgeon struggling to cope with a long queue of waiting patients, and immediately offered to assist. On his return to Britain, he abandoned his promising medical career, and announced his intention to work in India permanently after his next attempt on Everest.^[1]

[edit] Second Everest expedition

Somervell returned to Everest with the 1924 expedition. Throughout the expedition he was dogged by a sore throat, hacking cough and occasional difficulty breathing, but remained one of the strongest members of the team. The team's first summit attempt was aborted due to bad weather, and during the retreat four porters who had refused to descend the avalanche prone slopes below the North Col were left sitting on a ledge overnight. Somervell led the rescue operation the next morning, undertaking a delicate traverse of the avalanche slope to reach the four men.^[11]

Once the team had regrouped and high camps re-established, Somervell made the next summit attempt with Edward Norton. Setting out from Camp VI at 6:40 a.m. on 4 June, they made a traverse of the North Face below the Northeast Ridge. Somervell, racked by coughing fits, decided at noon that he could go no further. Norton continued alone for a short distance before judging that snow conditions were too dangerous for a lone, unroped climber. They had reached an altitude of 8570 m; a record which would not be broken, with certainty, until 1952.^[12][13]

On the descent, the throat problems which had plagued Somervell reached a climax, and he found himself fighting for his life as some flesh came loose and caused him to choke. Unable to speak or attract Norton's attention he sat down in the snow to die. He later wrote of what happened next;

"Finally, I pressed my chest with both hands, gave one last almighty push — and the obstruction came up. What a relief! Coughing up a little blood, I once more breathed really freely — more freely than I had done for some days. Though the pain was intense, I was a new man."^[14]

The obstruction was the entire mucous membrane lining Somervell's throat, which had become badly frostbitten in the cold air.^[15]

[edit] After Everest

From 1925 to 1949, Somervell worked at the south Travancore medical mission, which became one of the largest missionary hospitals in the world. He attracted new staff, and built an innovative viewing gallery in the operating theatre where friends and relatives of the patients could observe the surgery and learn about its benefits. This helped build trust between the doctors and the surrounding people, and helped encourage sick people to come for treatment earlier than had been the case in the past. He was also an early pioneer of the treatment of leprosy, which until that time had been considered incurable. For his work at the hospital, he was awarded a Kaisar-I-Hind Medal in 1938.^[1]

Somervell became an associate professor of surgery at Vellore Christian Medical College in 1949, a post he would hold until his retirement. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1953 New Year Honours.^[16] On his retirement in 1961 he returned to England, and was President of the Alpine Club for three years. He died in Ambleside in 1975. A teaching hospital in Trivandrim is now named in his honour.^[17]

[edit] References