Howard Somervell - the Olympian mountaineer

This year marks one hundred years since the 1924 Olympics. At those Games, two outstanding medical students and a young doctor won medals – Hyla (“Henry”) Stallard (1901-1973), Arthur Porritt (1900-1994) and Theodore Howard Somervell (1890-1975). All three went on to become distinguished and pioneering surgeons in their own specialties.

Somervell was awarded one of the first Olympic gold medals for alpinism (or mountaineering) at the inaugural Winter Olympics, held in Chamonix, France in early 1924, in recognition of his role in the 1922 British expedition to Everest.

Above: Howard Somervell during the 1924 Mount Everest Expedition. Photograph taken by Bentley Beetham, 1924. Image reproduced with kind permission of the Royal Geographical Society with IBG.

Born in Kendal on the edge of the Lake District in 1890, Somervell was the son of William Henry Somervell, a wealthy businessman, and Florence Somervell née Howard. By 18 he had joined the Keswick-based Fell and Rock Climbing Club and began a lifetime’s interest in mountaineering. Throughout his studies at Caius College, Cambridge and University College Hospital and while training in Liverpool and London, he spent as much time as possible climbing, in the UK and on the Continent. He described the lure of the mountains in his autobiography After Everest: “…I had entered fairyland, and thenceforward every holiday of my life…was to be a climbing holiday, either at home among the crags of Cumberland or Skye, or farther afield among the glories of the Alps, Norway, and the Himalaya.”

Despite the trauma of serving in the First World War, as a surgeon on the frontlines in a casualty clearing station, by the early 1920s Somervell was considered one of the best young mountaineers in the country. Although he was disappointed not to be chosen for the 1921 reconnaissance expedition to Everest organised by the Everest Committee (a joint venture by the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club), he was overjoyed to be invited on the 1922 expedition – the first to aim to reach the summit. The explorer Sir Francis Younghusband, then president of the Royal Geographical Society, described the young Somervell: “Mr Somervell was perhaps even more versatile in his accomplishments. He was a surgeon in a London hospital, who was also skilled both in music and painting, and yet found time for mountaineering, and being younger than the others, and possessed of exuberant energy and a fine physique, he could be reckoned on to go with the highest climbers.”

The members of the 1922 expedition, led by Charles Grenville Bruce, left London for India in February 1922, travelling on the Caledonia. Once in Bombay, the party quickly left for Calcutta by train and then on to Darjeeling, where they were joined by porters, then trekked across Sikhim and into Tibet.

After a month of travelling, they reached the foot of the valley which descends from the north side of Everest and made a base camp. It was decided that Henry Morshead, Edward Norton, George Mallory and Somervell should make a first attempt at the summit without oxygen, leaving behind the cumbersome cylinders and facemasks they had brought with them. They started their ascent on 19 May, climbing to a stony slope at 25,000 feet, where they pitched their tents overnight. The following day, after little sleep, they awoke to find snow had fallen and the temperature had dropped. Just 100 yards into the day’s climb, Morshead became unwell and had to turn back to their overnight camp. The remaining men climbed on for six hours but were overcome by fatigue. At around 2.30pm, at a height of 26,800 feet, they made the difficult decision to turn back: they needed to make sure Morshead could make it to safety before nightfall.

On the treacherous descent down the mountain, the climbers almost fell to their deaths, but were saved by Mallory: “Both of us began sliding at increasing speed…Mallory had had just enough time to prepare for a pull on the rope, digging his axe firmly into the hard snow. It held, and so did the rope, and the party was saved.” They managed to reach base camp and safety. Despite their disappointment at not reaching the summit, the team had set a new world record for the highest altitude climbed.

A second attempt was made by George Ingle Finch, Geoffrey Bruce and a Gurkha officer, Lans-Naik Tejbir Bura, with oxygen support. Despite a snowstorm, Finch and Bruce managed to climb even higher than the first party, to 27,300 feet, but were forced to retreat, less than 2,000 feet from the summit.

By now the expedition was running out of time: the monsoon had set in and snow was lying deep. It was decided to make a third attempt. On 3 June Colin Grant Crawford, Finch, Mallory, and Somervell started out with 14 porters. On the morning of 7 June, the group began the assent of the North Col, but were overtaken by an avalanche. Somervell was partially buried, but managed to free himself, as did the other European climbers. Tragically, despite efforts to dig the missing porters out of the snow, seven died. Recognising the monsoon conditions had made it too dangerous to continue, it was decided to end the expedition.

Above: A postcard showing “The highest photograph ever taken”. Photogaph by Theodore Howard Somervell, 1922. Public domain. From Wikimedia Commons.

Back in London, The Times reported on the climbers’ heroic efforts and the valuable experience gained by the mountaineers. Younghusband, addressing the Royal Geographical Society, said: “Many another climber, and many another traveller, and many another struggler upward in every walk of life and in every country will be braced and heartened in remembering what Finch and Mallory, Somervell, Norton and Bruce have …accomplished.” No mention was made of the deaths of the porters.

In France, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the “father” of the modern Olympics, admired the ethos of mountaineering, and wanted to reward the participants. In early February 1924, at the closing ceremony of the Chamonix Winter Sports Week (later retrospectively named the first Winter Olympic Games), he awarded gold medals to the members of the expedition, including posthumous honours to the seven porters who had died. Edward Strutt, the deputy leader of the expedition, received the medals on the team’s behalf. The leader, Bruce, remained in London, where he was busy preparing for the next Everest expedition; the ship to Bombay was due to sail at the end of February.

Somervell, who joined this next attempt to scale Everest, had already sailed for India in September 1923. Deeply affected by the poverty he had witnessed in India, he had decided to abandon his London career as a surgeon and become a medical missionary. He stayed in India for the next 25 years, dedicating his life to the London Missionary Society’s Medical Mission in Neyyoor, Tamil Nadu.

There are more stories about Olympian surgeons on our Library Blog page. Read about Arthur Porritt who won a bronze medal in the 100m sprint and Hyla Stallard who won a bronze medal in the 800m race at the Paris Olympics in 1924.

Sarah Gillam, Lives of the Fellows Biographies Editor