Theodore Howard Somervell OBE, FRCS (16 April 1890 – 23 January 1975) was an English surgeon, mountaineer, painter and missionary who was a member of two expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s, and then spent nearly 40 years working as a doctor in India.

He studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he developed his strong Christian faith and gained First Class Honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos.

He was commissioned as a lieutenant with the West Lancashire Casualty Clearing Station on 17 May 1915, having previously been a member of the University of London Officer Training Corps.

Their plan had been to establish a further camp at around 8000 m, but in the thin air it proved impossible to climb as quickly as they hoped, and they were forced to send the Sherpas down and make camp on a cramped ledge at around 7600 m. The following day, exhausted and suffering from frostbite, they reached a height of 8170 m before turning round, realising that they had no hope of reaching the summit before dark.

[10] Over the next few days a second group of climbers, Geoffrey Bruce and George Finch, using oxygen, made a second unsuccessful attempt on the summit.

With the weakened climbers back at Base Camp (only Somervell was considered fit to continue by the expedition doctor), and the weather becoming worse with the imminent arrival of the monsoon, Somervell and Mallory argued that the team should make a third attempt, against the advice of Charles Bruce, the expedition leader.

At the main hospital of the south Travancore medical mission in Neyyoor he found a single surgeon struggling to cope with a long queue of waiting patients, and immediately offered to assist.

On his return to Britain, he abandoned his promising medical career, and announced his intention to work in India permanently after his next attempt on Everest.

Throughout the expedition he was dogged by a sore throat, hacking cough and occasional difficulty breathing, but remained one of the strongest members of the team.

The team's first summit attempt was aborted due to bad weather, and during the retreat four porters who had refused to descend the avalanche prone slopes below the North Col were left sitting on a ledge overnight.

Somervell led the rescue operation the next morning, undertaking a delicate traverse of the avalanche slope to reach the four men.

Setting out from Camp VI at 6:40 a.m. on 4 June, they made a traverse of the North Face below the Northeast Ridge, thereby by-passing the now notorious Second Step.

[15][9][16] On the descent, the throat problems which had plagued Somervell reached a climax, and he found himself fighting for his life as some flesh came loose and caused him to choke.

[25] A collection of his mountaineering equipment and other effects, including his 1924 Winter Olympics gold medal, and his sketchbooks and paintings, now in the possession of his grandson, was shown on an episode of the BBC Television programme Antiques Roadshow in April 2022.

[27] Somervell's work as a doctor in India was recognised in the 1939 New Year Honours, when he was awarded a Kaisar-I-Hind Medal, first class.