BURIED TOGETHER

Partner Violet Florence Martin, Geraldine Cummins

Queer Places:
Westminster School, Little Dean's Yard, Great Smith St, Westminster, London SW1P 3PF, Regno Unito
Alexandra College, Milltown Rd, Dublin 6, Irlanda
Drishane House, Drishane, Castletownshend, Co. Cork, Irlanda
St Barrahane, Castletownshend, The League, Castletownshend, Co. Cork, Irlanda

Edith Anna Œnone Somerville (2 May 1858 – 8 October 1949) was an Irish novelist who habitually signed herself as "E. Œ. Somerville". She was the first woman Master of Fox Hounds (West Carbery Foxhounds) in 1903. She wrote in collaboration with her cousin "Martin Ross" (Violet Martin) under the pseudonym "Somerville and Ross". Together they published a series of fourteen stories and novels, the most popular of which were The Real Charlotte, and The Experiences of an Irish R. M., published in 1899. Edith Somerville and Violet Martin formed a lifelong partnership in the late XIX century, which lasted until Violet's death in 1915 and continued, for Edith, beyond the grave. The two women were second cousins but did not meet until their early 20s, when they found they enjoyed and intellectual and emotional sympathy. Violet regarded their partnership as an alternative to marriage and Edith commented that, while for most young people, the flirtations of your are resolved and composed by marrriage, to Martin and to me was opened another way, and the flowering of both our lives was when we met each other.

Lillian Faderman argues that Edith Somerville and Violet Martin's partnership is unlikely to have been a sexual relationship, citing Geraldine Cummins, Somerville's biographer and companion from 1827, who claimed that Somerville had definitive views on the evils of sexual immorality and considered the Irish Roman Catholic Church wise in its condemnation of misdemeanours of this kind.

The eldest of eight children, Somerville was born on the island of Corfu, then part of the United States of the Ionian Islands, a British protectorate where her father was stationed.[1] A year later, her father retired to Drishane, Castletownshend, County Cork, where Somerville grew up. Somerville is said to have dominated her sister and brothers in a family where women were encouraged to be bold.[2] She received her primary education at home, and then attended Alexandra College in Dublin. In 1884 she went to Paris for the first of several trips to study art at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Delécluse,[3] and then spent a term at the Westminster School of Art in Dean's Yard, Westminster. At home, riding and painting were her absorbing interests.[1]

In January 1886 she met her cousin Violet Martin, and their literary partnership began the following year. Their first book, An Irish Cousin, appeared in 1889, under the names Geilles Herring (from the maiden name of her ancestor, the wife of Sir Walter de Somerville of Linton and Carnwath) and Martin Ross,[4] though the pen names were dropped after the first edition.[4] In 1898 Edith Somerville went to paint at the Etaples art colony, accompanied by Violet. There they profited from their stay by conceiving together the stories later gathered in Some Experiences of an Irish R. M., completed the following year.[5] By the time Violet died in 1915, they had published fourteen books together.[1] Her cousin's death stunned Edith, who continued to write as "Somerville and Ross", claiming that they kept in contact through spiritualist séances.

Somerville was a devoted sportswoman who in 1903 had become master of the West Carbery Foxhounds. She was also active in the suffragist movement, corresponding with Dame Ethel Smyth.[6] She was in London still recovering from the shock of Violet's death when the Easter Rising of 1916 broke out. On 9 May she wrote a letter to The Times, blaming the British government for the state of affairs in Ireland.[7] After that she tended towards Nationalism,and as an adept musician at parties she specialized in Irish tunes and Nationalist songs.[8]

She had exhibitions of her pictures in Dublin and in London between 1920 and 1938 and was active as an illustrator of children's picture books and sporting picture books.

In 1936 her brother Henry Boyle Townsend Somerville, a retired Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy, was killed by the I.R.A. at the family home of Castletownshend. She finished his book "Will Mariner" after his death.

She died at Castletownshend in October 1949, aged 91, and is buried alongside Violet Florence Martin at Saint Barrahane's Church, Castletownsend, County Cork, Ireland.[2]

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