Mary Somerville (broadcasting executive)
Mary Somerville | |
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Born | 1 November 1897 New Zealand |
Died | 1 September 1963 (aged 65) |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Pedagogue, broadcasting executive |
Employer |
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Awards |
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.
Early life[]
Mary Somerville was born in New Zealand on 1 November 1897, as the eldest daughter of the Reverend 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[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i 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 2020-10-06. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Jump up to: a b Hartley, Cathy (2003). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. Europa Publications. p. 405. ISBN 1857432282.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Chignell, Hugo (2011). Public Issue Radio: Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230247390.
- ^ "Miss Mary Somerville, Pioneer of School Broadcasting". Glasgow Herald. 2 September 1963. p. 8. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
- ^ "Value of radio in education". The Advocate (Tasmania). Tasmania, Australia. 6 October 1947. p. 2. Retrieved 12 March 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Crook, David (2007). "School Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: An Exploratory History". Retrieved 12 March 2016 – via CORE. Cite journal requires
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(help) - ^ Briggs, Asa (1979). The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume IV: Sound and Vision. Oxford University Press. p. 530. ISBN 0192129678.
- ^ Games, Stephen (2015). Pevsner: The BBC Years: Listening to the Visual Arts. Ashgate Publishing Inc. p. 93. ISBN 9781409461951.
- ^ Murphy, Kate. "Early Pioneers Women at the BBC in the 1920s and 1930s". BBC. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ "Mary Somerville, B.B.C. Educator". The New York Times. 2 September 1963. p. 11. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ "Mary Somerville". Radio Times. No. 2116. 28 May 1964. p. 22.
External links[]
- 1897 births
- 1963 deaths
- Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford
- BBC executives
- British educational theorists
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- People from Bath, Somerset