King's College London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

Survey of the Papers of Senior UK Defence Personnel, 1900-1975

Service biography
Joined RN 1898; World War I 1915-1916; Dardanelles 1915; Director of Signals Department, Admiralty 1925-1927; Flag Capt to V Adm John Donald Kelly 1927-1929; Naval Instructor, Imperial Defence College 1929-1931; HMS NORFOLK 1931-1932; Cdre, RN Barracks, Portsmouth 1932-1934; Director Personal Services, Admiralty 1934-1936; commanding Destroyer Flotillas, Mediterranean Fleet 1936-1938; Commander-in-Chief, East Indies 1938-1939; World War II 1939-1945; Special Service, Admiralty 1939; Commanding Officer, Force 'H', Gibraltar 1940-1941; Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Fleet 1942-1944; Head of British Admiralty Delegation, Washington DC, USA 1944-1945; Admiral of the Fleet 1945

Papers
LLIDDELL HART CENTRE FOR MILITARY ARCHIVES: The papers of Gen Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay of Wormington, include personal correspondence with Somerville 1943-1947 (nine items, ref: Ismay 4/Som) CHURCHILL ARCHIVES CENTRE, CHURCHILL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY: Naval and personal papers (24 boxes, ref: SMVL) 1891-1949, including; diaries 1910-1949; correspondence 1927-1944; the papers of Adm Sir Dudley Burton Napier North also include correspondence with Somerville; BRITISH LIBRARY DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS: Correspondence 1914-1944 (Ref: Add Mss 52563-64) (CHECK); the papers of AF Andrew Browne Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, include a copy of Somerville's diary 1944; SOUTHAMPTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY: The papers of AF Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, include correspondence with Somerville relating to South East Asia Command 1943-1946 (ref: MB1/C93, C229, C250)

Publications
Donald George Frederick Wyville Macintyre, Fighting Admiral: the life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Somerville (Evans Bros, London, 1961); Michael Simpson, editor, The Somerville papers: selections from the private and official correspondence of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Somerville, GCB, GBE, DSO (Scolar, for the Navy Records Society, Aldershot, 1996)

Index terms
SUBJECTS strategy 1943-1945
PLACES
NAMES

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