Ross Somerville

Memorial service

 A tribute for Ross will be held at 2pm on 24th November 2025 at Meow, 9 Edward Street, Te Aro, Wellington

Somerville, James Ross [Ross]

Musician, librarian, editor, linguist, adventurer, enthusiast, friend. Ross died in Wellington on 18 October, aged 74. Loved brother of Helen & Allan, Marg & Allan, Bruce & Rose, and Alan & Ruth, exemplary uncle to Liz, Thomas, Laura; Rosanna, Daniel, Oliver, Max; Walter, Maddie, Nick; Merritt, Peter, Frances; great friend to Rachel Barrowman and many others.

There will be a private cremation, and a tribute in memory of Ross is in the planning. Details regarding the memorial service will be updated on Ross’s tributes at lychgate.co.nz/upcoming-funerals/
Messages to the family can also be sent c/- Lychgate Funerals, 306 Willis Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011.

Tributes

David Mellor

I want to offer my sincere condolences to all Ross’s family. I spent my last 2 years at school in Napier with Ross. He was a true friend in every sense of the word. I was the other half of our tiny German language class in the last year at school, he was a major factor in my move from Napier to Dunedin where I shared a room with him at Knox College, I shared flats with him over several years as students in Dunedin when he played piano and I, the violin many times. We drifted apart when he went overseas but his musicianship, linguistic skilfulness and kindness remain fond memories for me. I have a (photo of him during this time when I was experimenting with photography which I would be happy to share with you if you care to let me know. I am still in Dunedin so will be unable to come to his funeral but my thoughts will be with you, and about him at that time.

Charlotte Macdonald

Deep condolences to all of Ross’ family and friends.

I met Ross when he worked at The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in Wellington in the 1990s and early 2000s. He was a tremendous colleague – expert, funny, patient, skilled, and much more. His musical interests and talents were formidable. He very kindly recorded a whole slew of music for me onto cassettes when I was about to embark on a long road trip. And thinking back, he must have winced at my taste in music at the time, but was too diplomatic to make a rude comment!

He was a gentle, scholarly, and always good person to talk to.

While our paths have not crossed in recent years, he will always be remembered, and he made the lives around him the better for his presence.

Haere rā e hoa

Charlotte Macdonald

Martin Edmond

Very sorry to hear that Ross has left us. We were friends for fifty years, ever since he moved, in 1974, into the flat upstairs at 96 Kelburn Parade where I lived in the mid-seventies. He was working at the Wellington Public Library at the time (I think) and used to bring home records from their collection – and was thus the person who introduced me to Tom Waits, via the double live album Nighthawks at the Diner. Ross continued to introduce me to new music, and to books I might not otherwise have heard of, for the rest of the time we knew each other. I would aways catch up with him for a drink or a meal if I was in Wellington, and on his regular visits to Sydney we would generally find a convenient pub to spend an afternoon or evening in together. I valued his wit, sometimes acerbic, his irony, his intelligence, his generosity, and his extraordinarily wide-ranging knowledge of the arts. He was also a wonderful gossip, with a way of compiling and then re-telling, the best stories. I have missed him for the last few years and will continue to do so – but I will also keep my memories of him alive as long as I am alive too.

Ian Osborne

So sad to hear of Ross’s death. I knew him as an undergraduate at Otago University in the early seventies. I think we met as first year students of German Language and Literature but our real bond was forged through music. We were both passionate record collectors. He imported LPs from the UK and the USA and his collection was exotic and varied. He introduced me to the music of the Grateful Dead and modern classical composers such as Janacek and Symanowski. His taste was eclectic and adventurous and his mind and ears were always open to new and interesting music. He was also the first and indeed only person I ever knew who owned and played a Fender Rhodes – Joe Zawinul’s riff to Mercy, Mercy, Mercy was a particular favourite. His approach to music and literature was formative for me. He had a dry and intelligent wit and his observations of campus life and fellow students always made me laugh. He came to visit me in Sussex where I have lived since that time and it was as if the intervening years had dropped right away. I gradually lost touch with him but never forgot his kind and intelligent approach to life. There are specific recordings which I still play today and these always bring Ross back into my room. Janacek’s Sinfonietta – the Abbado recording – the first Jerry Garcia solo album and the first album by Keith Jarrett and Gary Burton – the one with Moonchild and Como en Vietnam – were all records introduced to me by Ross. It might seem trivial to cite these but they absolutely evoke his character, humour, discretion and exemplary taste and bring him to life after fifty years. Sail on Ross mate…