Robert Somers-Smith attended Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford and continued the strong family sporting traditions at both establishments. His father, also an Old Etonian, ran for Oxford against Cambridge in 1868 and 1869 and was twice the AAA half-mile champion, while his brother, Richard, of Eton and Merton College, rowed against Cambridge in 1904 and 1905. Robert was “Captain of the Boats” at Eton but never went on to win a Blue, however, he was stroke to the winning Olympic four. He also won the Wyfold and Visitors’ Challenge Cups at Henley with Magdalen in 1907, and the Stewards’ and Visitors’ Challenge Cups in 1908. After leaving university, Somers-Smith became a solicitor before taking a commission into the 5th London Regiment.
He won a Military Cross in 1916 for his bravery at Ypres the previous year. He was killed in action on the first ay of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, exactly one year and one day after his brother lost his life at the front in Flanders. The varying fortunes of Olympic champions cannot be more poignantly illustrated than by the fate of the four young men from Magdalen College, Oxford who won the coxless fours at the 1908 Olympic Games. Two were killed in the war and the two who survived became Knights of the Realm.
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