Early Career
Somerville served in the Royal Navy in the First World War. He stayed in the service after the war, and on 31 December 1921 was promoted to captain and commanded HMS Benbow. Somerville served as Director of the Admiralty's Signal Department from 1925 to 1927. He went on to be Flag Captain to Vice Admiral John Kelly in 1927 and served as a Naval Instructor at the Imperial Defence College from 1929 to 1931. He was made commanding officer of HMS Norfolk in 1931. Promoted to commodore in 1932, he became Commander of the Royal Navy Barracks at Portsmouth. Promoted to rear admiral on 12 October 1933 he became Director of Personal Services at the Admiralty in 1934.
Somerville commanded the Mediterranean Fleet destroyer flotillas from 1936 to 1938, and during the Spanish Civil War helped protect Majorca from the Republicans. In 1938 and 1939 he served as Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, before being forced to retire in 1939 for medical reasons (it was thought, incorrectly, that he had tuberculosis).
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