Sir Edward Jonathan Somers QC (9 September 1928 – 3 June 2002) was a New Zealand jurist and member of the Privy Council.
Somers was born in Christchurch in 1928, and was educated at Christ's College and the University of Canterbury, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws.[1] In 1952, Somers became engaged to Mollie Louise Morison, and they later married and went on to have three children.[2][3]
Somers practised as a barrister and solicitor between 1952 and 1971, and solely as a barrister thereafter. In 1973, he was appointed Queen's Counsel, and the following year he became a judge of the Supreme Court (now High Court). He was appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal in 1981, a role from which he retired in 1990.[1] In 1981, he was also appointed to the Privy Council.
Somers was a part-time lecturer at the University of Canterbury from 1954 to 1974.[4]
In 1998, Somers was appointed by the British government to be a member of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. He resigned from that role for personal reasons in 2000.[5]
Somers died of cancer in Christchurch in 2002.[3] His wife, Louise, Lady Somers, died in Christchurch in 2021.[6]
In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, Somers was appointed a Knight Bachelor.[7] He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Canterbury in 1992.[8]
