Arthur Somervell

SOMERVELL, (Sir) Arthur. b. Windermere, Cumbria, 5 June 1863; d. London, 2 May 1937. Somervell was a composer and educationist, the youngest of six sons and nine children of Robert Miller Somervell, leather merchant and founder of Somervell Brothers (manufacturers of K (for ‘Kendal’) Shoes), and Anne Wilson. He was educated for one year at Uppingham School (1878-79) and then at King’s College, Cambridge (BA 1884), where he also studied composition under Charles Villiers Stanford*. At Stanford’s recommendation he worked under Friedrich Kiel (Stanford’s former teacher) and Woldemar Bargiel at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik (1884-85). On returning to England he studied (again at Stanford’s...