William Henry Somervell (5 April 1860 – 26 September 1934) was an English businessman, philanthropist and Liberal politician. Family and education William Somervell was born at Kendal in Westmorland on 5 April 1860, the son of John Somervell. He was educated at Stramongate School, Kendal and the Grove House School, Tottenham. In 1889 he married Florence Howard of Bickley, near Chislehurst in Kent. They had two sons and a daughter. One of his sons, Dr Howard Somervell (1890–1975), was medical missionary for the London Missionary Society (LMS) hospital at Neyyor, Travancore in southern India and a mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest and was a colleague of George Mallory. In religion Somervell was a Congregationalist; an elder of the Zion Congregational Church at Kendal and for many years the superintendent of the Sunday School there. He was a long-serving Treasurer of the London Missionary Society and was regarded as an influential lay member of the country's Christian churches. He twice (in 1913 and again in 1922) was a member of an LMS deputation to India. As a dedicated teetotaller, Somervell was a keen advocate of the LMS' work to promote temperance. Philanthropy Somervell's reputation as a philanthropist derives not only from his religious work but rather from his long-time association with the Kendal Charity Organization Society, of which he was for a while, chairman. During this time he gave away what was described as 'a large portion' of his own income. Career In 1876, Somervell entered the family business, Somervell Bros. of Kendal, leather merchants and boot manufacturers. Later known as K Shoes, the company remained a major employer in Kendal until its factory closed in 2003. He travelled widely on business for the firm, visiting India, Australia and New Zealand. A director of the firm, he eventually he rose to be chairman of the board during the last years of his life. Politics Kendal Somervell twice contested the South or Kendal Division of Westmorland in the Liberal interest. In December 1910 he reduced the Unionist majority and lost by 308 votes. He was selected to fight the seat again at a by-election on 18 March 1913 occasioned by the death of the sitting Tory MP Josceline Bagot. He failed to win the seat however and explained his defeat, and the doubling of the Unionist majority, by claiming that his opponent, Colonel John Wakefield Weston (who stood as an Independent Unionist)