T. Howard Somervell was born on 16th April 1890 at Kendal, Westmoreland, England, the son of W.H. Somervell, later (from 1918 to 1930) the Treasurer of the London Missionary Society. He was educated at the Leas School, at Rugby and at Cambridge where he took a science degree. He trained and qualified, in 1915, as a surgeon at University College Hospital, London. From 1915 to 1918 he served at the West Lancashire Casualty Clearing Station in France where his most harrowing experience was dealing with the many thousands injured in the Battle of the Somme.
By September 1924 Somervell was back at work at Neyyoor and in the following year brought out his new wife, Margaret Hope Simpson. In 1926 he became Superintendent of the Neyyoor Hospital, and of the South Travancore Medical Mission where he was stationed until 1945.
