Clive Somerfield collection

Clive was born during WWII, in Finchley, London on 16.10 1944, an only child. He attended Highgate School, a fee-paying, Public School in Highgate village, London N6. He obtained a MA degree in 1966 from Clare College, Cambridge where he studied Electrical Science. His second degree, a MSc, was at Imperial College London 1969 where he specialised in Electrical Engineering. His hobbies were foreign travel and musical appreciation. His main employment was in industry with Philips Electronics, where he was latterly the Chartered Patent Agent and European Patent Attorney. Unfortunately he succumbed to ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) in 1986, and took early retirement from Philips. His last years were spent living alone, housebound since 1991, in a bungalow in Kimpton, Hertfordshire. His parents had both left Berlin, Germany before the war, to escape the Nazi regime. His mother, Annemarie, a photographer, and grandfather, Dr Alfred Berliner, a retired surgeon, came to London in the mid 1930s. His father, Gerhard Sommerfeld, having obtained a law degree from Freiburg arrived in London in 1937 (?) and enrolled at the LSE. Annemarie & Gerhard had once previously met in Berlin in 1933 at a party, but were reintroduced in London. They married in June 1938 at the Hampstead Register Office. Gerhard was initially employed at Bloomsbury House, helping other Jewish immigrants. After the war, they changed their surname to Somerfield, by Deed Poll. Gerhard was unable to practise law in the UK, but found office work with British Rail instead. Family members that were direct victims of the Nazi regime were:- Great-uncle Willi Hermann Berliner who committed suicide 1.3.1943, the day he was due to be deported from Berlin. He had travelled widely, visiting USA & Japan with his father, and also South Africa. Hedwig Sommerfeld, his grandmother, who had visited England in 1939, but returned to Berlin, against family advice, was deported to Minsk Concentration camp in 1944 and disappeared. Great-uncle and aunt, Martin & Anna Matzdorf were deported from Berlin to Auschwitz in Dec 1942 where they died in the gas chamber. Two cousins that escaped being subject to the restrictive regime in Germany, were Eva & Hilde Matzdorf (daughters of 3 above). They were able to come as refugees to England having obtained visas as domestic servants. Hilde married in the UK, but Eva returned to Germany after the war and died 2.8.15, aged 100. Clive died of pneumonia 13.2.2014 in Watford general hospital.

Donated April 2017

Donor: The Solicitor for the affairs of her Majesty’s Treasury as Administrator of Clive Somerfield’s estate