Captain Robert Somerville

Captain Robert Dennis Somerville, 585 Corps Field Park Company, Royal Engineers. He was Lost at Sea, aged 31, on the 7th January 1943 when his ship the S.S. “Benalbanach” was torpedoed and sunk by a German aircraft 150 miles north West of Algiers. He had been born in Dalkeith and was the son of Mary and the late James Somerville of ” Bengarry”, Eskbank and Heriot. He is commemorated on the Medjez-El-bab Memorial, Tunisia. He had been educated at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh and Edinburgh University where he had studied Engineering before graduating B.Sc. He was employed in Edinburgh and Perth before being granted a Commission in the Territorial Royal Engineers. In July 1942 the 585th Coy. was designated an ” Army Field Park Company” which was to act as a base in North Africa for the field Units and held specialist equipment. ( for fuller details of the sinking see under Cadet Officer Johnnie Simpson above ).