Somervell Theodore Howard

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
geboren in Kendal (Großbritannien)

Quelle: Rivista Mensile 1965, Seite 74 f
Quelle: Rivista Mensile 1975, Seite 356 ff

Theodore Howard Somervell 1890-1975
One of the early occasions when I met Howard Somervell was in 1919 on the Mer de Glace. With others we had both set out at dawn to 'rescue' Professor Pigou, reported taken ill on the Periades. It was a somewhat amusing episode, for we were all skidding about (without crampons) on the glazed surface of the glacier in the early morning, with Somervell full of vigour and more balanced than the rest of the party, but eventually sharing our surprise, if not disgust, to see the Professor and his party progressing briskly down the middle of the glacier, roped and by no means ill. This was during one of Somervell's earlier Alpine seasons, although he had been out before the First War. Some of his climbs, many of them on first class peaks, are recorded in his interesting book, 'After Everest' (1936) and others in the AJ and elsewhere. Initially he had done a considerable amount of rock-climbing in the English Lake District, leading some of the more severe routes. But important though many of these earlier expeditions may have been, they tend almost to pale into insignificance when one realises Somervell's achievements elsewhere, particularly on Everest. His climb in 1922 reaching about 27,000 ft, and again in 1924 with Norton attaining about 28,000 ft were, of course, remarkable. But as outstanding in their way were the parts he played otherwise, especially his rescue of the porters on the N Col slopes under extremely dangerous conditions, a superb act of skill and coolness. And what an exhibition of resolution and toughness was his personal fight for physiological survival in his struggle to overcome suffocation caused by the frozen lining of his larynx, during his descent from 28,000 ft in 1924! One can only wonder whether anyone even in the most severe Polar conditions can have survived such an ordeal. Howard Somervell must indeed have been one of the hardiest mountaineers of all time.
Following Rugby School and Caius College, Cambridge, where his musical talents early showed themselves and where he took a double first in the Natural Sciences Tripos, he embarked on his chosen profession of medicine, and surgery in particular. Hardly had he qualified when the Great War broke out, and he was posted out to a Casualty Clearing Station in France. There he was plunged into all the horrors of that holocaust, and was forced as a very young surgeon into undertaking skilled work on casualties that was almost beyond the capabilitiesof his experienced fellow-officers. He has described in his book 'After Everest' the revulsion to his sensitive nature of the carnage only relieved by the sight of thousands of uncomplaining young men severely wounded who had volunteered to sacrifice their lives for their country. But it was this early experience, particularly in major surgery and in radiography, that was to stand him in such good stead in his career in India as a pioneering medical missionary and a social benefactor. It is of course impossible in this brief notice to cite more than the barest facts of it.
On his return from Everest in 1922 Somervell was offered a post on the surgical staff of University College Hospital, which, in his own words, 'meant that the front door to eminence in my chosen profession had been opened'. But he had already paid a visit to his old friend Dr Pugh at the mission hospital at Neyyoor in Travancore, and had seen the urgent need for assistance for this grossly over-worked and dedicated doctor. So with prompt resolution, but not without some reluctance at having to forsake things so near to his heart as his devoted family, his home in the mountains of the Lake District, his musical opportunities and other cultural interests, Somervell decided that his future must lie in that part of India where needs were so urgent. Holding very broad and practical Christian principles, he was determined not to drive those principles down the throats of Hindu or other devotees, as he declared was so often the tendency of missionaries. Indeed he has written 'the old idea of medical missions as a bait to catch the unwary and then proceed to proselytize him is obviously not merely out-of-date but definitely wrong and un-Christian'. Moreover, he wrote amusingly of his collisions with narrow minded Christian missionaries, who on the voyage out to India were strongly critical of his dancing and card-playing etc! Somervell's great advantage proved to be his ability to identify himself with the Indian people, treating them as brothers and sisters, and the hospital patients not merely as cases, not even as 'interesting cases'.
It is quite impossible to record all the many aspects of Somervell's remarkable and (let it be known) honorary work in India, whether at Neyyoor for more than 22 years, or later in charge of surgery at the Christian Medical College at Vellore. Much of this was described in his later books: 'Knife and Life in India' (1940 and 1955) and 'India Calling' (1947). He was recognised as an international authority on duodenal ulcers, which are so rife in S India, and his further book, 'The Surgery of the Stomach and Duodenum' (1948), skilfully illustrated by himself, was widely acclaimed. And in all these enterprises he was wonderfully supported by his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir James Hope Simpson, whom he married in 1925, and rook out to Neyyoor after a honeymoon in the mountains of Norway. Though not perhaps claiming to be an experienced mountaineer, she made many climbs and mountain journeys with Howard. For throughout his career he made a point of keeping himself physically fit by regular holidays and expeditions into the mountains. And what a spendid example of fitness and endurance he had shown himself to be from his early Alpine days: eg 32 peaks in one season in 1923! Two sons have followed him into the medical profession, one to Vellore.
No record of Howard Somervell can be in any way complete without a mention of his other accomplishments of landscape-painting and music. How many mountaineers, and others, have delighted in his exquisite paintings and sketches, whether in watercolours, oils or pastels, of an immense range of mountain and other scenes! No one has so faithfully caught the moods and subtleties of the Tibetan landscape and atmosphere. To have sat down on an unstable rock at about 26,000 ft on Everest in 1922 and executed a charming little pastel sketch was one supreme achievement; and then finally in December 1974, in the Alpine Club gallery, to have exhibited (as a valete) no less than 97 of his works in this 85th year can assuredly never be equalled!
Moreover, from his childhood he developed a passion for music, for him, as he declared, the highest of the arts. Beethoven was his favourite composer. On two occasions, when staying at Rye in Sussex, he cycled twice the 150 miles and back to the Queen's Hall, London, to hear Beethoven in the Promenade Concerts. But he later admitted that he would not do it again unless it were for Brahms! His appreciation and grasp of music was such that on his return from Tibet in 1922 he wrote all the music for the Expedition's film-show, and arranged for Western instruments the characteristic folk-runes which he had collected in the Himalaya.
During the Everest Expeditions Somervell found in Mallory a particularly close friend, one with whom he could really talk freely of more serious things, and with whom he often read poetry aloud when sharing a tent: especially selections from Bridge's 'Spirit of Man'. He felt Mallory's death very deeply, and often thought over the manner of his disappearance. Last year (1974) from a friend living in Shetland I myself received a transcript of a 'message' which he had received, purporting to have come from lrvine. (This described in some detail how they reached the summit, and that an accident occurred on their way down.) I discussed this with Somervell, who thought it to be a possible explanation of the fate of Mallory and Irvine. As an open-minded scientist he was unwilling to be identified with those who are incapable of even allowing for the existence of a spirit-world, or who pose as superior sceptics or downright unbelievers.
'The Times' of 25 January '75 in their considerable obiruary notice described Somervell as a 'Visionary on Everest'. But surely he was more than that. He was one of the most gifted and accomplished men of our time, in fact I would say, unique. Apart from anything else, the character and extent of his work especially in S India was unequalled; bur all-too-slowly did the Government recognise it and tardily awarded him an OBE. His early achievement of a FRCS was inevitable, but his long Indian experience was to give him, too, unusual ability as a physician. Later of course, on his return home, the Presidency of the Alpine Club, and of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club of the English Lake District, the Vice-Presidency of the Himalayan Club, and office in sundry artistic groups, all came his way; but meanwhile he was lecturing widely for the cause of medical missionary work in India. It will be long before the world sees again the like of this many-sided and accomplished man: perhaps 'Fortuna multis dat nimium', but as Howard Somervell himself would no doubt have added 'nulli satis'.
N. E. Odell

T. S. Blakeney writes:
Any tribute to Somervell would be incomplete without reference to what to him was the most important thing in his life, his medical work in S India. Among medical missionaries Somervell was one of the most eminent of this century; it has been my good fortune to have stayed with him at Neyyoor and also with Albert Schweitzer at Lambarene, and I can say without hesitation that the former stands the comparison very well. If Schweitzer had more to do initially in establishing his hospital-cutting it out of the forest-Somervell had a bigger task to organise, Neyyoor being at one time the largest mission hospital in the world.
Both men compared in other ways: each sacrificed a career in a profession in which they had great prospects; each was an ardent lover of music; Somervell was also a keen painter of mountain scenery. By Roing out to Neyyoor in 1923 (after a flying visit in 1922, following the Everest expedition), he had to forego a fine appointment that had been offered to him in London, that would have led on to a big career in surgery. He certainly got plenty of surgery at Neyyoor, where he performed an almost incredibly high proportion of the major operations, as well as having to cope with much elseepidemics of cholera, or treatment of leprosy.
If a readiness to give up all normal prospects of worldly advancement for the sake of one's ideals, is the hall-mark of greatness of character, one may hazard the guess that the Alpine Club has had no greater member than T. H. Somervell. To have known him is part of 'life's unalterable good'.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 81, 1976, Seite 272-274


Geboren am:
1890
Gestorben am:
1975