Dr James Louis Edgeworth Somers
Dr James Somers
Dr Somers was born in Roscrea Ireland, was educated at Dublin and Cambridge Universities and graduated at the age of 19, the youngest doctor to have qualified in the British Empire up to that time.
His remarkable career included a period of two years that he lived with an Arab tribe. He also lived and practised in South America and Spain before arriving in Australia about 1890.
After marrying Miss Frances Usher, of Ballarat, the family arrived in Mornington, where Dr. Somers practised medicine in the community for 45 years.
Mrs Frances Somers
He was much loved and a familiar figure on his white horse as he travelled considerable distances to visit patients.
Dr. Somers was involved in all aspects of the community and served on all sorts of committees. He was also a magistrate.
Dr. and Mrs. Somers had five children and their three sons enlisted in the 1st World War.
Two of their sons were killed in the war, and Mrs. Somers donated an Honour Board to the people of Mornington, with the names of the local fallen inscribed on it.
She also wrote poems about the sons she lost in the War. These were published in the Peninsula Post.
They were also instrumental in obtaining a fitting war memorial to be erected in the Mornington Shire. This now stands in Memorial Park, near where Dr Somers lived, at 14 Albert St, prior to his death.
On the death of Dr. Somers a sundial was erected in Somers Park on the corner of Main Street and the Nepean Highway in his memory.
Grave Site and Headstone
Mrs Somers donated this Honour Board to the people of Mornington, and it was hung in the Shire offices.
As her second son was killed in France, just before the First World War ended, he had to be added on later.
It is now proudly displayed at the Mornington R.S.L.
"Tarfayah" 14 Albert St, Mornington Dr Somers lived here from the early 1920s until his death, in 1938
