Norman Arthur Henry Somerset was born on 8 September 1894 in Kensington, the elder of the two children of Captain, The Honourable, Arthur Charles Edward Somerset (1860-1948) and Louisa Eliza Grant Somerset née Hodgson (1870-1940). His birth was registered in the 4th quarter of 1894 in the Kensington registration district. On 21 October 1894 he was baptised in St Paul's Church, Wilton Place, Westminster, where the baptismal register shows the family living at 19 Bolton Street, Westminster and that his father was a Captain in Her Majesty's Service.
He was shown in the 1901 census as still residing at 19 Bolton Street, Westminster, with his parents, together with a governess, a cook, a lady's maid, two house-maids, a kitchen maid and a footman. His father was described as a retired Captain from the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own). When his sister, Victoria Mary Blanche Somerset (1905-1990), was baptised on 9 November 1905 at St Paul's Church, Wilton Place, the baptismal register shows the family address as 8 Stratford Place, Westminster.
He was educated at Mr Edward Hawtrey's school at Westgate-on-Sea, Kent and then at Eton College, Eton, Berkshire, from which he passed directly to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Berkshire. On 17 September 1913 as a Gentleman Cadet he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, confirmed as such in the London Gazette.
Serving in the regiment's 1st Battalion he entered France on 4 October 1914 and was killed in action, aged 20 years, on 23 October 1914 near Kruiseik, Belgium, when taking a message during the earlier part of the First Battle of Ypres. His body was known to have been buried by the enemy in the Kolenberg Forest German Cemetery but the grave subsequently became lost and he is now commemorated by a memorial stone, No.11 in the Harlebeke New British Cemetery, Deerlijksesteenweg 47, 8530 Harelbeke, Belgium.
There would appear to some discrepancy regarding the date of his death. The Register of Soldiers Effects show that when they sent his £35-0s-0d war gratuity to his father on 15 September 1919 his date of death was recorded as being on 24 October 1914 and this is the date also shown in De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour. More confusion is shown on the records authorising his posthumous awards of the 1914 Star with the 5th August to 22nd November 1914 Clasp, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal, as they claim his death was on 25 October 1914. We however have used the 23 October 1914 date that is shown on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on the dedicatory inscription on Vellum placed on an adjacent column to his memorial inside the Church of the Annunciation, Bryanston Street, London, W1H 7AH. He is also commemorated on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website and in Volume One of 'The Bond of Sacrifice'.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
