**SOLD** CBE WW2 OBE MEDAL GROUP COLONEL SOMERVILLE ROYAL SIGNALS NORTHERN IRELAND AWARD

Description

A post-War ‘Civil Division’ C.B.E., Second War ‘Military Division’ O.B.E. group of eight awarded to Colonel H. B. Somerville, Royal Corps of Signals.

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Civil) Commander’s 2nd type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with neck riband, in ‘D.S. & S.’ case of issue; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; British War and Victory Medals, both impressed named to 2. LIEUT. H. B. SOMERVILLE.; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1953; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., 2nd issue, Territorial, silver and silver-gilt, reverse officially dated ‘1950’, with integral top riband bar, mounted as worn, together with the recipient’s related miniature awards & uniform buttons.

 C.B.E. London Gazette 2 January 1950: Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Benson Somerville, O.B.E., Regional Director, Northern Ireland Region, General Post Office.

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1946.

 Henry Benson Somerville was born in Rangoon, Burma, on the 17th March 1897. Schooled at King Williams College, Isle of Man. He served as Territorial Forces during the First World War, listed as a Sergeant with the Liverpool Regiment, being commissioned Second Lieutenant, 1/5th Liverpool Regiment (Service Bn) on 31 October 1917. He was married to Alma Hove in 1921, who died June 1934, aged 42. He was appointed an Assistant Engineer in the Post Office on 16 May 1924, and transferred to the Supplementary Reserve of Officers, Royal Corps of Signals, with the rank of Second Lieutenant, on 10 December 1927. He served with the Royal Corps of Signals during the Second World War, listed as being a Major 3rd September 1939 and for his services was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1946 New Year’s Honours List. Somerville was appointed an Honorary Colonel of a Territorial Army unit on 15 July 1950 and was awarded the Efficiency Decoration that year. The same year he was awarded his C.B.E., being listed in the London Gazette as being Lieutenant Colonel Benson, Regional Director of the Post Office in Northern Ireland, an unusual civilian award for a listed senior officer, perhaps with a connection to the enduring troubles in the region in which Somerville may well have been acting in a security/monitoring role with the G.P.O. He relinquished his appointment on 14 July 1955, retaining the rank of Colonel. He died in December 1982 in Poole, Dorset.