Early career Somerville joined the training ship
HMS Britannia as a
cadet on 15 January 1897 and served as
midshipman in the cruiser in the
Channel Fleet and then in the cruiser on the
Pacific Station. He was promoted to
sub-lieutenant on 15 December 1901 and to
lieutenant on 15 March 1904 before joining the
armoured cruiser on the
China Station. and awarded the
Distinguished Service Order and
Mentioned in Despatches on 14 March 1916. He transferred to the battleship in the Grand Fleet in January 1917 and then joined the signals school at
Portsmouth at the end of the year. Promoted to
captain on 31 December 1921, he joined the
Admiralty as Deputy Director of Signals in early 1922, before becoming Flag Captain to
Sir John Kelly, commanding the
4th Battle Squadron, in the battleship in August 1922. Somerville became Flag Officer Destroyers in the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1936 and during the
Spanish Civil War commanded an international force in the area of Majorca when
Palma was threatened with bombardment by Republican forces. Promoted to
vice admiral on 11 September 1937, he became
Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, with his flag in the cruiser in July 1938.
European operations, 1939–1942 during the
Battle of Cape Spartivento With the approach of the
Second World War, Somerville was recalled to duty on special service to the
Admiralty later in 1939 and performed work on naval
radar development. He was Mentioned in Despatches on 16 August 1940. Somerville transferred his flag to the battlecruiser in August 1940 and led the British forces in the
Battle of Cape Spartivento in November; Churchill was outraged at Somerville for not continuing the pursuit of the
Italian Navy after that battle and dispatched the
Earl of Cork to conduct an inquiry, but Cork found that Somerville had acted entirely appropriately. Force H
bombarded Genoa on 9 February 1941, and Somerville, still in HMS
Renown in May 1941, also played an important role in the pursuit and sinking of the later that month. He transferred his flag to the battleship and then to the battleship .
Indian Ocean, 1942–1944 Somerville became
Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Fleet, with his flag in the battleship HMS
Warspite in March 1942 and was promoted to full
admiral on 6 April 1942. Following the
fall of Singapore and the
Indian Ocean Raid, Somerville transferred his fleet headquarters from
Trincomalee in
Ceylon to
Kilindini in
Kenya. For most of the rest of 1942, Somerville's fleet avoided any major operations against the Japanese, barring a brief sortie into the Bay of Bengal in late July and early August 1942 during which he turned back after being spotted by a Japanese flying boat on 2 August 1942. Somerville's unwillingness to risk his ships in a diversionary attack against the Japanese in Southeast Asia during mid- and late 1942, which he saw as necessary to preserve its precariously limited strength and its ability to guard merchant convoys in the Indian Ocean, was met with derision by US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral
Ernest J. King, as King believed that the Eastern Fleet doing so would greatly assist the Americans in their own operations against the Japanese as they clashed at the
Battles of the Coral Sea and
Midway and throughout the
Guadalcanal campaign. In Spring 1944, with reinforcements, Somerville was able to go on the offensive in a series of aggressive air strikes in the Japanese-occupied
Dutch East Indies: these included attacks on
Sabang in April and May 1944 and on
Surabaya in May 1944.
Later career Somerville was placed in charge of the British naval delegation in
Washington, D.C. in October 1944 where he managed—to the surprise of almost everyone—to get on very well with the notoriously abrasive and anti-British Admiral
Ernest King, the United States'
Chief of Naval Operations. was promoted to
Admiral of the Fleet on 8 May 1945 and was advanced to
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1946. He was also appointed a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Netherlands government and a
Commander of the Legion of Merit by the United States. ==Later life==