Edith Anna Somerville - Life

Life

Somerville was born on Corfu, where her father was stationed, the eldest of eight children. A year later he retired to Drishane, Castletownsend, County Cork, where Somerville grew up. She received her primary education at home, and then at Alexandra College in Dublin. She later studied art in Paris in 1884 and at the Royal Westminster School of Art in London. At home riding and painting were her absorbing interests.

In 1887 she met her cousin Violet Martin, and thus began their literary partnership. Their first book, An Irish Cousin, appeared in 1889. In 1898 Edith Somerville went to paint at the Etaples art colony, accompanied by Violet and they profited from their stay by conceiving together the stories gathered in Some Experiences of an Irish R. M. in the following year. By the time Violet died in 1915 they had published fourteen books together. Her friend's death stunned Edith, who continued to write as "Somerville and Ross", claiming that they kept in contact through spiritualist séances.

She was in London still recovering from the shock when the 1916 Insurrection broke out. On 9 May she wrote a letter to the Times, blaming the British Government for the state of affairs in Ireland. She tended towards Nationalism afterwards and, an adept musician, at parties specialized in Irish tunes and Nationalist songs.

Somerville was a devoted sportswoman who in 1903 had become master of the West Carbery Foxhounds. She was also active in the suffragist movement, corresponding with Dame Ethel Smyth. She had exhibitions of her pictures in Dublin and in London between 1920 and 1938 and was active as an illustrator of children's picture books and sporting picture books.

She died at age 91 in Castletownshend, County Cork.