ASHFORD
ASHFORD
– Sheila Clarke
‘A sense of duty’: Margaret Somerville, the Great War and the War of Independence Margaret Hall Clinch Somerville was born in Oxfordshire, the daughter of a Witney brewery and banking family. Her husband, Bellingham Arthur Somerville, was an RIC District Inspector who had Margaret Somerville. served in Armagh, Down and Cork. The couple Photo: Courtesy of Bill Somerville had seven surviving children. After transferring to Wicklow Town, Bellingham Arthur served there for three years prior to his early retirement, for health reasons, in 1891. In 1893, it was Margaret’s wealth which enabled the couple to purchase for £1,800 the then dilapidated Clermont House, situated on 70 acres, and to fund the renovations and extension. Prior to Clermont, the family lived in rented houses at Seaview and Friars Hill in Wicklow Town and at Ballyhenry House, Ashford. Bellingham Arthur was a keen amateur photographer, a hobby which his children continued. He began the first of his collections of photographs at Clermont during the building renovations in 1894. The negatives were printed onto glass plate in the darkroom situated in a wing of the house.
The Great War The Somerville children were taught at home by tutors and governesses and their social activities consisted of games of hockey and tennis with children of other families in the area such as the Croftons, the Tighes and the Truells. William (otherwise known as Bunt), James (Jim), Gualter (otherwise known as Pat) and Regi decided to make careers for themselves in the British Army, following the tradition of many landed or Church of Ireland families.
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