Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville GCB, GBE, DSO (17 July 1882 – 19 March 1949) was a Royal Navy officer.

[5] His son Lieutenant-Commander John Arthur Fownes Somerville, CB, CBE served in the Royal Navy and became the deputy director of GCHQ.

[11][12] He transferred to the battleship HMS King George V in the Grand Fleet in January 1917 and then joined the signals school at Portsmouth at the end of the year.

[13] He joined the directing staff at the Imperial Defence College in 1929 and became commanding officer of the cruiser HMS Norfolk in the Home Fleet in December 1931.

[17] With the approach of the Second World War, Somerville was recalled to duty on special service to the Admiralty later in 1939 and performed work on naval radar development.

Somerville's forces inflicted severe damage on their erstwhile allies, most notably sinking the battleship Bretagne with heavy loss of life.

[21] Force H bombarded Genoa on 9 February 1941, and Somerville, still in HMS Renown in May 1941, also played an important role in the pursuit and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck later that month.

[21] Somerville transferred his flag to the battleship HMS Nelson in August 1941 and also played a major role in protecting Malta from enemy attack in autumn 1941.

The damage inflicted upon Royal Navy and allied Commonwealth forces in the Indian Ocean was nonetheless minimized, being forewarned by intelligence so their heavy units sailed from their bases prior to the Japanese air attacks.

Somerville's unwillingness to risk his ships in a diversionary attack against the Japanese in Southeast Asia during mid- and late 1942, which he saw as necessary to preserve its precariously limited strength and its ability to guard merchant convoys in the Indian Ocean, was met with derision by US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J.

[26] In Spring 1944, with reinforcements, Somerville was able to go on the offensive in a series of aggressive air strikes in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies: these included attacks on Sabang in April and May 1944 and on Surabaya in May 1944.

[22] He became Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset on 8 November 1944,[28] was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 8 May 1945 and was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1946.

[30] In retirement Somerville became Lord Lieutenant of Somerset in August 1946 and was appointed a Knight of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem on 23 December 1946.