26 Facts About Boyle Somerville

Vice-Admiral Henry Boyle Townshend Somerville was an Irish naval officer who served in the Royal Navy as a hydrographic surveyor.

Boyle Somerville carried out oceanographic and magnetic observations in the Indian Ocean, and developed a sounding apparatus for determining ocean depths from a ship under way.

Boyle Somerville carried out archaeological work as well as surveying in Britain and Ireland.

Boyle Somerville was an author of scholarly works as well as of popular accounts of his surveying activities and the comprehensive Ocean Passages of the World.

Boyle Somerville's father was Thomas Henry Somerville and his mother was Adelaide Eliza Coghill.

Boyle Somerville joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1877.

Boyle Somerville then spent four years on the China Station.

Boyle Somerville trained as a Hydrographic Surveyor, choosing this branch of the Navy because promotion prospects were good, and because it offered opportunities for a much freer existence than the "intolerable uniformity" that he saw as typical of much Navy life.

Boyle Somerville built a significant collection of ethnographic artefacts from the Solomon Islands which is in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.

In 1895, working on the survey of Tonga, on Penguin, Boyle Somerville took the opportunity to visit Niuafo'ou, and published an early description of the island.

Boyle Somerville was promoted to commander on 31 December 1901, and the following year was posted to the Hydrographic Department for temporary service.

Boyle Somerville took part in the scientific work of the expedition, as well as making oceanographic and magnetic observations.

Boyle Somerville was promoted to captain in 1912 and vice admiral on 1 August 1919.

Shortly before the First World War, Boyle Somerville developed a steam-operated sounding machine for determining ocean depth from a ship that was under way.

In 1908, while surveying in British waters, Boyle Somerville read a book suggesting stone circles and standing stones might have astronomical significance.

Boyle Somerville thereafter devoted much of his time to surveying and in some cases excavating, such monuments in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere, and became a recognised expert in the field of archaeoastronomy.

Boyle Somerville summarised his findings and ideas in two later articles.

Boyle Somerville was involved in the "diplomacy of force" with the Spanish authorities to prevent violations of neutrality, both regarding use of radio communications and port facilities by the Germans.

In February 1919, Boyle Somerville wrote a review setting out a number of basic principles for service and encouraging the development of specialist intelligence technical skills within the navy for intelligence gathering and analysis.

Boyle Somerville published articles describing his surveying experiences in Blackwood's Magazine.

Boyle Somerville continued to be active in archaeology, publishing his last paper in 1931.

Boyle Somerville was killed on the evening of 24 March 1936 by the Irish Republican Army.

Boyle Somerville went to answer a knocking at the front door.

Boyle Somerville's killing was one of the events that led the de Valera government to ban the IRA.

Boyle Somerville was the younger brother of the novelist and artist, Edith Boyle Somerville, who finished his biography of William Mariner for its posthumous publication.

Boyle Somerville is buried in St Barrahane's Church in Castletownshend.