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Pte. John Charles Sommerville
Royal Flying Corps
My grandfather, John Sommerville, was born 2nd February 1898, in the Strand Union Workhouse, London, used by the poor as a lying in hospital. He was a sickly child, in and out of children's hospitals, orphanages and convalescent homes, he was abandoned at a young age. He had a withered arm, possibly because of ill-treatment, and was very short-sighted.
Because of these physical disadvantages, he was given a desk job in the RFC, which saved him from the horror of the trenches. He served in France and learnt some French songs, which he often sang to us as children.
After the war, he worked as a steward in The Junior Constitutional Club, Piccadilly, and later for the electrical company, Phillips in Croydon, where he kept their ledgers, writing and in them with his beautiful, Copperplate handwriting. He married and had three daughters.
