Mary Somerville (broadcasting executive)

Mary Somerville, OBE (1 November 1897 – 1 September 1963) was the first Director of Schools Broadcasting at the BBC (1925–1949). She pioneered their school broadcasting program in the 1930s and 1940s, and later served as controller of the BBC Talks division.

Mary Somerville
Born1 November 1897 Edit this on Wikidata
New Zealand Edit this on Wikidata
Died1 September 1963 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 65)
Alma mater
OccupationPedagogue, broadcasting executive Edit this on Wikidata
Employer
  • BBC (1925–1955) Edit this on Wikidata
Awards
  • Officer of the Order of the British Empire Edit this on Wikidata

Early life

Mary Somerville was born in New Zealand on 1 November 1897, as the eldest daughter of the Reverend James Alexander Somerville and his wife Agnes Fleming.[1][2] She was raised in Scotland, and attended Somerville College, where she completed an English degree.[2] While at school, she met and impressed John Reith; already convinced of the potential for radio in education, she offered to work unpaid for the BBC. Reith advised her to stay at Oxford and "take a degree" before joining the BBC. On Reith's recommendation, she was hired in 1925, and began working for the BBC's Education Department under J. C. Stobart.[3][4]

BBC career

In 1929, Somerville was named Director of School Broadcasting, a position which she held until 1947.[1] She believed firmly in the value of radio programming to enrich children's educational experiences, which she considered overly rigid at the time; under her tenure, school radio programs began to use dramatizations and sound effects to enliven their lessons.[5][1][6] Somerville worked hard to ensure that BBC school broadcasting was held to high academic standards and was seen as a legitimate enterprise, fighting against skeptics who considered radio to be good for entertainment only.[6]

In 1947, Somerville was appointed assistant controller to the Talks division. On 1 July 1950, she became controller of the division, a position she held until her retirement from the BBC in December 1955.[7][1] She was the first woman controller of a BBC division.[3]

Personal life

Somerville was married to journalist Ralph Penton Brown, with whom she had one son, from 3 July 1928 to 1945, when the marriage was dissolved. She was allowed to maintain her position at BBC even after her divorce because of a 1933 BBC ruling in which "the retention of women after marriage is to be regarded as the exception."[1] On 20 July 1962, she married Eric Rowan Davies, a BBC producer.[1]

She was diabetic, and "used to alarm [BBC producer Leonie] Cohn by casually yanking up her skirts during Talks meetings and injecting herself with insulin."[8]

In 1935, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of her efforts.[1] She received an honorary MA degree from the University of Manchester in 1943.[1]

She died at her home in Bath on 1 September 1963.[1] Obituaries were published in The Times (written by Reith)[9] and The New York Times.[10] A forty-minute commemorative programme was broadcast by the BBC Home Service on 31 May 1964.[11]

References
  1. Goldie, Grace Wyndham (2004). "Somerville, Mary (1897–1963), educationist and broadcasting executive". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36192. Retrieved 6 October 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Hartley, Cathy (2003). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. Europa Publications. p. 405. ISBN 1857432282.
  3. Chignell, Hugo (2011). Public Issue Radio: Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230247390.
  4. "Miss Mary Somerville, Pioneer of School Broadcasting". Glasgow Herald. 2 September 1963. p. 8. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  5. "Value of radio in education". The Advocate (Tasmania). Tasmania, Australia. 6 October 1947. p. 2. Retrieved 12 March 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. Crook, David (2007). "School Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: An Exploratory History". Retrieved 12 March 2016 – via CORE. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. Briggs, Asa (1979). The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume IV: Sound and Vision. Oxford University Press. p. 530. ISBN 0192129678.
  8. Games, Stephen (2015). Pevsner: The BBC Years: Listening to the Visual Arts. Ashgate Publishing Inc. p. 93. ISBN 9781409461951.
  9. Murphy, Kate. "Early Pioneers Women at the BBC in the 1920s and 1930s". BBC. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  10. "Mary Somerville, B.B.C. Educator". The New York Times. 2 September 1963. p. 11. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  11. "Mary Somerville". Radio Times. No. 2116. 28 May 1964. p. 22.
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