Painter and draughtsman, sister of the artist Stuart Somerville. Margaret Scott Somerville was a child prodigy, aged three showing with Royal Drawing Society. By the time she was 14 she had had three solo shows in London, her work being much admired by the artists Walter Sickert and John Lavery, who referred to “the extraordinary genius of the little girl”. She learned a lot from her artist-collector father, Charles, and was much encouraged by her writer mother, Rose Anne Chantrey. As early as 1928, Peggy had a sell-out retrospective at the Claridge Gallery that prompted rave reviews and global news stories. In 1930 the family moved from Ashford, Middlesex, to mid-Suffolk and Peggy Somerville spent five war years in the Women’s Land Army.