Art & Literature

Art & Literature TH Somervell Tinki Dzong 1922. Watercolour Lakeland Arts Trust DAVID SEDDON 'Something the Artist Wishes to Say' TH Somervell 1890-1975 heodore Howard Somervell has a record of achievement extending T beyond his mountaineering exploits that has hitherto been only partly appreciated. First and foremost, he was a family man and a man of profound Christian belief who devoted his professional life to the health of the people of southern India. In 1922 and 1924 he climbed high on Everest without supplementary oxygen. He was President of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club (1954-56) and President of the Alpine Club (1962-65). He was a musician and an author, and as recent exhibitions and picture cards testify, he was also an accomplished artist. Yet even those aware of Somervell's output think of him as a painter of only Himalayan scenes. This study seeks to cast more light on the man and his artistic Q?uvre. Surgeon After Rugby, Somervell went to Caius College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first in Natural Sciences in 1912. He completed his studies at University College Hospital. Although he considered enlisting in 1914, he was advised to qualify first. The Army List records that he was com missioned as a Captain in the Territorial Army in November 1915. He was within a few miles of the front line as the battle of the Somme began on July 1916 (but managed to fit in some climbing near Marseilles when on l leave later that year ) and was also very near the front at the time of the final German offensive in March 1918. On one occasion he operated almost continuously for 70 hours and this immense experience in wartime surgery would serve him well throughout his professional life. He completed his training in Liverpool and Leeds and was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1920. After the 1922 Everest expedition, with £60 in his pocket, Somervell travelled through India and eventually arrived at the town of N eyyoor in Travancore. He had arranged to meet Dr SH Pugh, a surgeon at Neyyoor Hospital whom he had met in England, and while there took on some of Pugh's workload. Somervell's life was to change forthwith. Hitherto his ambition had been to secure an appointment as a consultant surgeon, and on his return to Britain he was offered such an appointment at University College Hospital, London. Yet he turned his back on everything this could offer to accept a post as Medical Missionary at Neyyoor for the London Missionary Society and sailed for India on 3 October 1923. 2 A few young doctors today might spend some months or a year in such a post before 217 218 THE ALPI E JOURNAL 2005 returning to practise in the United Kingdom. To devote one's entire professional life in such a way is a remarkable demonstration of Somervell's humanity. His life and work at Neyyoor and elsewhere in southern India is described in three books, After Everest (London, 1936), India Calling (London 1947) and Knife and Life in India (London 1941). Suffice to say, he was not just a general surgeon. He was orthopaedic surgeon, anaesthetist, obstetrician and physician as well, managing epidemics of cholera and malaria. He purchased X-ray equipment that was the only such equipment available to many millions of people in southern India and became particularly skilled in the surgical management of duodenal ulcer, writing a book and several papers on the subject. He even had an operation for duodenal ulcer named after him, though it is no longer performed. He also wrote papers on subjects as diverse as trench foot, the surgical management of tuberculosis and cancer of the mouth and jaw. During the 1924 expedition he attempted to measure oxygen and carbon dioxide from !he lungs of the climbers at various altitudes. In July 1935, Somervell took leave for one year and returned to Britain. During that year he completed AfterEverest and climbed in the Tatras with his brother and Bentley Beetham.3 He exhibited at the Lake Artists Society and at the Alpine Club in 1936. From 1948 to1953 he was Professor of Surgery at the Christian Medical College at Vellore, southern India, some of the staff from Neyyoor moving with him. At Vellore he founded a climbing club for the medical students, who usually climbed barefoot.4 Somervell retired to the Lake District but returned to India for two short periods of service in 1955-56 and 1961. Mountaineer Somervell's record in the Alps and on Everest is well documented. After his first summer season in 1913 he returned to the Alps in 1920 and with various companions, including Bentley Beetham and JHB Bell, climbed the Aiguilles des Grands Charmoz, Aiguille du Midi and Dent Blanche and traversed the Matterhorn and Zinalrothorn before moving on to the 5 6 Dauphine. Despite this not unreasonable tally of peaks, his application to join the 1921 Everest expedition was turned down. He had been a member of the Fell and Rock since 1915 and in February 1921 was elected to the Alpine Club. Amongst his supporters was Noel Odel!. In June 1920 he became the first person to traverse the Cuillin of Skye from Sligachan to Glen Brittle solo. The Alpine routes of his 1921 season included the Aiguille du Geant, the Grepon and traverses of the Weissmies and Portjengrat, Mont Blanc, Dom-Tiischhorn and others. He was working at University College Hospital in London when he heard that he had been invited to join the 1922 Everest expedition. He would have to travel to Darjeeling at his own expense but, once there, all further costs 'SOMETHING THE ARTIST WISHES TO SAY' 219 would be met by the expedition committee. He was 'transported with joy' at this news and responded that as his salary was £150 a year he would be quite happy to comply with this requirement and might even be able to support himself further by selling paintings of the expedition. In AfterEverest he gives his own account of the avalanche on 7 June that killed seven porters and ended the expedition's third attempt on the summit. With Mallory and Norton, he had already taken part in the first summit attempt and on 21 May reached almost 27,000ft without supplementary oxygen. Mallory had already written an account of the accident for Bruce's The Assault on Everest:1922 (London 1923) but Somervell, writing more than 10 years later, makes a number of important observations. He records that the initial walk of half a mile from Camp In to the foot of the slopes leading to the North Col took two hours through '...snow of a most unpleasant texture... ' but higher up the'...snow trod firmer... we were gaining height more rapidly than we thought the condition of the snow would allow. .. ' This firmer snow was almost certainly windslab. After light wind it may feel like powder snow, but after strong winds the original snow crystals have been so fragmented and packed down so densely that the edge of a boot may barely grip. Mallory described '...unremitting snowfall ... ' and ' ...fine glistening particles driven by the wind through our (tent) walls...' on the nights of 3 and 4 June. Once on the initial slopes below the North Col, Mallory, Somervell and Crawford excavated trenches to see if they could trigger an avalanche. They could not and feeling secure they began with one porter to climb up towards the North Col. The angle of the slope began to ease and with the firm surface underfoot their spirits rose. Somervell was leading and had reached about 600ft beneath the North Col when'...with a subdued report ominous in the softness of its violence, a crack suddenly appeared about 20 feet above me. The snow on which I was standing began to move, slowly at first, and then faster.' Somervell and his rope were lucky. They were able to extricate themselves. The 13 porters below were less fortunate. The avalanche swept them over an ice cliff and seven were killed. The weight of the first rope of four men had not been enough to trigger the avalanche but once the whole party was on the slope the combined weight of 17 men and equipment was. Ruttledge was later to write that the avalanche had occurred because the snow slopes beneath the North Col had been softened by the warm winds of the monsoon. 7 This was not a wet snow avalanche. Somervell had seen the fracture line of a slab avalanche. Somervell and Crawford left the expedition a few days before its departure from Rongbuk to explore the valleys and mountains to the north of Kangchenjunga. Despite the arrival of the monsoon they were able to climb five peaks of more than 18,000ft before crossing the Lhonak La and returning to Kalimpong8 Once at Darjeeling Somervell set off on his journey to Neyyoor. 220 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2005 In 1923, with his brother, Beetham, Frank Smythe and others, he climbed the Weisshorn by the Schalligrat, the Ober Gabelhorn, Jungfrau, Wetterhorn and Schreckhorn, and traversed the Bietschhorn. Somervell's party also traversed the Eiger from Scheidegg carrying the provisional oxygen equip ment destined for use on Everest the following year. He submitted a report critical of the weight and awkwardness of the apparatus to the Mount Everest Committee.9 The account of his Alpine season was written while on his way to India. lO Somervell was selected again for Everest in 1924 and considered to be one of the ablest climbers in the party.

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