Donald Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow

Donald Bradley Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow, (24 August 1889 – 18 November 1960) was a British barrister, judge and Conservative Party politician. He served as Solicitor General and Attorney General from 1933 to 1945 and was briefly Home Secretary in Winston Churchill's 1945 caretaker government.

Background, education and legal career Somervell was the son of Robert Somervell, master and bursar of Harrow School. His father taught English to Winston Churchill. He was educated at Harrow before reading chemistry with a demyship at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a First in 1911. In 1912 he was elected a prize fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, the first chemist to be elected. He then joined the Inner Temple, but his legal training was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. Commissioned into the British Army, he served with the Middlesex Regiment and the 53rd Brigade in India and Mesopotamia. For his war service, he was appointed OBE in 1919.

Political career In 1929 he entered politics. Although supporting the Liberal Party by inclination, its decline and his admiration for Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin led him to join the Conservative Party. He stood unsuccessfully for Crewe in the 1929 general election. He won the seat in the 1931 election and held it for 14 years.

In 1933, he became Solicitor General, receiving the customary knighthood, followed three years later by a promotion to Attorney General. In the latter post, he served for nine years during which he oversaw crises such as the Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII. He was the longest-serving Attorney General since 1754. He was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1938 Birthday Honours. He was Recorder of Kingston upon Thames from 1940 to 1946. He retired in 1960, shortly before his death.

Family

Somervell married Loelia Helen Buchan-Hepburn, daughter of Sir Archibald Buchan-Hepburn, 4th Baronet, in 1933. She died in July 1945, aged 48. Somervell survived her by fifteen years and died in November 1960, aged 71. His grave can be found in the grounds of Saint Mary's Church in Ewelme, opposite that of the writer Jerome K. Jerome.

Arms