THE DEATH of Beatrice Somerville-Large on Easter Saturday has taken away someone whose kindness and generosity touched many during her long eventful life.
Born in 1913 in Lahore, then part of India, Sammy, as she was known to relatives and friends, returned to Ireland as a child. She became a good athlete, a noted horsewoman and swimmer. She inherited from her mother, a recognised water colourist, an artistic ability which she used in embroidery and in shell pictures following a tradition dating back to Mrs Delany.
In 1934 she married Becher Somerville-Large, an ophthalmologist who was also an antiquarian and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. They settled at Brooklawn, a small estate near Palmerstown above the Liffey (from which Sammy was known to catch the odd salmon) in what was then rural countryside. The most immediate impression for those entering the elegant Georgian house from the immaculate garden was how every room glowed with beauty and colour.
When Becher was away during the war years, Sammy trained as a social worker in Trinity, travelling in to Dublin to lectures by pony and trap. Made aware of the city’s awful poverty, and the fortitude of women living in the tenements, for many years she worked among families in the slums. She recalled spending time in the Coombe looking for orange boxes for babies to sleep in. She also contributed her time to the Mount Street Club, the idiosyncratic Owenite organisation founded by her brother-in-law, Paddy Somerville-Large which aimed to help the unemployed without resorting to charity.
After Becher’s death in 1966 Sammy sold Brooklawn to King’s Hospital School. Its governors believe the purchase was probably the most significant decision the school made in the 350 years of its existence. In 1975 she was appointed to the school board and participated in running school affairs for the following 25 years. She was also closely involved with the Adelaide Hospital, joining the board in the late 1960s and becoming in 1973 the first woman to chair it. In 2000 she was presented with the honorary life membership of the Adelaide Hospital Society, a voluntary charitable organisation whose mission, before its removal to Tallaght, was to highlight medical care and health needs in a small city hospital. Her inspiring gift to the hospital chapel was a stained glass panel by Evie Hone in memory of Becher.
She was not only caring, but blessed with humour and common sense.
People will remember her in many different ways and the large attendance at her memorial service gave some indication of the high regard they felt for this lovely woman.
She is survived by her daughter, Faith, and by her wards, William Warham and Biddy Wilson and their families. – PETER SOMERVILLE-LARGE