Howard Somervell was born in England in 1890. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University (1911-13). During the First World War he served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps with the British expeditionary force in France (1915-18). After the war he graduated from University College Hospital, London as a surgeon.

Somervell was a keen mountaineer and traveller. Following a gruelling attempt on Everest in 1922 he travelled to India and was struck by the need for medical assistance in that country. On his return to England he announced to colleagues that he would make one further attempt on Everest (which he did in 1924) and then devote his life to India.

From 1924 to 1949 Somervell worked at the south Travancore medical mission, and trained aspiring surgeons. Amongst his other work, he pioneered leprosy treatment, firmly believing leprosy to be curable. He maintained a treatment centre for leprosy patients which housed 80 patients across four dormitories, and also a permanent leprosy settlement. He subsequently took up a post as associate professor of surgery at the Vellore Christian Medical College (1949-61).

Somervell was awarded the kaisar-i-Hind gold medal in 1938 and OBE in 1953.

He died, in his native Cumbria, in January 1975.

Source: C Northcott, “Somervell, (Theodore) Howard (1890–1975).” Rev. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by HCG Matthew and B Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31701 (accessed September 13, 2006).

There is also information relating to Somervell on the CSI Medical Mission website.

This entry was made 13 September, 2006, and updated on 18 October, 2006.