Van Someren was born in Melbourne, Australia, the fourth son of R. G. van Someren who was Singapore lawyer. He grew up in Malaysia before moving to Scotland with his mother. He attended
George Watson's College and studied zoology at
University of Edinburgh while graduating in medicine and dental surgery. Van Someren moved to
Kenya in 1912 to serve as a medical officer in British East Africa In 1930 he became
Curator of the
Coryndon Museum. Van Someren described a number of new bird and butterfly species. He collected specimens, sometimes making use of networks of trained Africans and he sent specimens to the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, the collections of Lord Rothschild (which are now divided between 6500 specimens at Natural History Museum, Tring and the rest at the
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago). Some 17000 specimens are also held at the
Royal Museum for Central Africa. He collaborated with specialists on a wide range of taxa including mammals, birds, insects and plants. He sent nearly 300,000 insect specimens to the British Museum and published extensively on the butterflies of Africa with reviews on genera such as
Charaxes. In 1956 he wrote a book
Days with Birds. His son Gurner Robert Cunningham "Chum" van Someren (1913-1997) also became an
ornithologist of repute. He illustrated birds for his books and also took photographs. Some of the cabinets in the Nairobi National Museum were made by him. He retired in 1932. Van Someren became a member of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society in 1911, becoming its honorary curator in 1914. He was involved in raising money for the Coryndon Memorial Museum which he directed from 1938. He edited the journal from 1925 to 1939. He moved to live in 1940 to Karen, Kenya. He was involved in the establishment of
Nairobi National Park. ==Works==