[1] He then joined the Inner Temple, but his legal training was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War.

Commissioned into the British Army, he served with the Middlesex Regiment and the 53rd Brigade in India and Mesopotamia.

[1] Having been called to the bar in absentia in 1916, he completed his pupillage and practiced in the chambers of William Jowitt, specialising in commercial law matters arising out of the Treaty of Versailles.

In the latter post, he served for nine years during which he oversaw crises such as the Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII.

In 1951 Churchill returned to power but passed over Somervell's claims to the Lord Chancellorship.