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| '''Gerd Walter Christian Sommerhoff''' ] (for services to education) was born on 13th February 1915, in ], Germany and died on 28th April 2002, in ], England, United Kingdom. He was a pioneer & lifelong advancer of theoretical ] and a noted ]. | '''Gerd Walter Christian Sommerhoff''' ] (for services to education) was born on 13th February 1915, in ], Germany and died on 28th April 2002, in ], England, United Kingdom. He was a pioneer & lifelong advancer of theoretical ] and a noted ]. | ||
| A great-grandson of the German composers ] and his wife ], he was living in England at the outset of the ]. Being a foreign national, he blamelessly suffered more than two years in an ] camp in Canada<ref></ref> before decompressing back in England, where he took up a post teaching science at the ] in ].<ref>Intellectual Autobiography by ]. In Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought: Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji, By Ricardo Salles. ], 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-19-926130-7}}.</ref> While there, he laid the foundation for ] (for which he was honoured by our late queen) using boxes of numbered cards, containing questions, answers, tutorial material, or descriptions of experiments, on a variety of different subjects.<ref name="JPM">. Accessed 16 June 2009.</ref> He became a Research Fellow in ] at ], and presented science programmes for the ] from 1960 to 1962, before being recruited to teach technology in ] in 1963 by headmaster ].<ref>Brian Scragg, Sevenoaks School, A History (1993)</ref> |
A great-grandson of the German composers ] and his wife ], he was living in England at the outset of the ]. Being a foreign national, he blamelessly suffered more than two years in an ] camp in Canada<ref></ref> before decompressing back in England, where he took up a post teaching science at the ] in ].<ref>Intellectual Autobiography by ]. In Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought: Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji, By Ricardo Salles. ], 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-19-926130-7}}.</ref> While there, he laid the foundation for ] (for which he was honoured by our late queen) using boxes of numbered cards, containing questions, answers, tutorial material, or descriptions of experiments, on a variety of different subjects.<ref name="JPM">. Accessed 16 June 2009.</ref> He became a Research Fellow in ] at ], and presented science programmes for the ] from 1960 to 1962, before being recruited to teach technology in ] in 1963 by headmaster ].<ref>Brian Scragg, Sevenoaks School, A History (1993)</ref> | ||
| Some of his students were ],<ref></ref> ], John Paul Morrison,<ref>. Accessed 7 July 2016.</ref> |
Some of his students were ],<ref></ref> ], John Paul Morrison,<ref>. Accessed 7 July 2016.</ref> | ||
| ==Early life and family== | ==Early life and family== | ||
| Gerd and his twin sister |
Gerd Sommerhoff and his twin sister were born in Wiesbaden, Germany, to Elizabeth Ruher and Walter Georg Sommerhoff, a wealthy banker who was born in New York to Elise Schumann, the second child of Robert and Clara Schumann. The Sommerhoff family resided in Haarlem, Netherlands, until the loss of the family fortune in the Wall Street crash and the death of their father "in compromising circumstances".<ref>Gerd Sommerhoff, Obituary, The Times, Friday 17 May 2002</ref> The two younger children moved to Ryde on the Isle of Wight in 1931 with their mother Elizabeth Sommerhoff when she married Major Bernard Francis Anne Vernon-Harcourt, while their elder brother, Walter Hans Sommerhoff, emigrated to Santiago, Chile. | ||
| Gerd |
Gerd Sommerhoff studied engineering at Zurich Polytechnic (now ]) and philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University. Although Gerda Sommerhoff was exempted from internment as an enemy alien in 1939, Gerd Sommerhoff was interned in Canada until 1942. Gerda Sommerhoff, a model for Vogue magazine, sculptor and photographer, emigrated to Santiago, Chile, where she married Juan Eduardo Subercaseaux and had five children. Upon release from internment, Gerd Sommerhoff taught science at the ] and presented science programmes for the ] from 1960–1962 before being recruited to ] in 1963 by headmaster ].<ref>Brian Scragg, Sevenoaks School, A History (1993)</ref> | ||
| ==Child sexual abuse== | |||
| Gerda, being female, was exempted from internment as an enemy alien, and became a model (for Vogue magazine), a sculptor and a photographer, then emigrated (as eldest sibling Walter had done) to ], in Chile, where she married Juan Eduardo Subercaseaux and had five children. | |||
| Alice Hemmings reported allegations of sexual abuse dating from 1976 in ''The Sevenoaks Chronicle''. The assault was reported to the Kent Police force by Stuart Neilson in 2012.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Dead-Sevenoaks-teacher-Gerd-Sommerhoff-accused/story-17263435-detail/story.html |title=Dead Sevenoaks teacher Gerd Sommerhoff accused of sexual abuse |first=Alice |last=Hemmings |date=8 November 2012 |agency=Sevenoaks Chronicle |accessdate=8 November 2012}}</ref> Gerd Sommerhoff was also alleged to have displayed pornography to pupils and to have made obscene remarks including boasts of bestiality. Sevenoaks School agreed to settle a compensation claim by another pupil alleging sexual abuse by Gerd Sommerhoff at Sevenoaks School when he was 12 years old. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, Tracey Emmett, "Sommerhoff’s abuse may have been suspected by those who worked with him."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/Sevenoaks-School-settles-sex-abuse-case-court/story-20048271-detail/story.html |title=Sevenoaks School settles sex abuse case out of court |first=Sean-Paul |last=Doran |date=7 November 2013 |agency=Sevenoaks Chronicle |accessdate=7 November 2013}}</ref> Several further witnesses and victims have subsequently been identified, indicating that Gerd Sommerhoff was a preferential paedophile attracted to pubescent boys.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/Sommerhoff-abuse/story-20094871-detail/story.html |title=Sevenoaks School teacher had 'six more victims' of sex abuse, claims accuser |first=Sean-Paul |last=Doran |date=18 November 2013 |agency=Sevenoaks Chronicle |accessdate=23 November 2013}}</ref> | |||
| ==Works== | ==Works== | ||
| Line 19: | Line 20: | ||
| *1990: ''Life, Brain and Consciousness'' | *1990: ''Life, Brain and Consciousness'' | ||
| *1994: ''An Account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences. Integrative Physiology and Behavioral Science''. With Karl F. MacDorman.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1007/BF02691012 | volume=29 | issue=2 | title=An account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences | journal=Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science | pages=151–181| year=1994 | last1=Sommerhoff | first1=Gerd | last2=MacDorman | first2=Karl | pmid=7947330 | s2cid=17193883 }}</ref> | *1994: ''An Account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences. Integrative Physiology and Behavioral Science''. With Karl F. MacDorman.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1007/BF02691012 | volume=29 | issue=2 | title=An account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences | journal=Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science | pages=151–181| year=1994 | last1=Sommerhoff | first1=Gerd | last2=MacDorman | first2=Karl | pmid=7947330 | s2cid=17193883 }}</ref> | ||
| *1996: ''In and Out of Consciousness. The intimate history of a search for certainties.''<ref>His autobiography and its biographical addendum will be uploaded here within days.</ref> | |||
| *2001: ''Understanding Consciousness – its function and brain processes.''<ref></ref> | *2001: ''Understanding Consciousness – its function and brain processes.''<ref></ref> | ||
| ==Retirement and eventual death== | |||
| In early October 1996, Gerd visited the University ] at Kelsey Kerridge sports hall in ], where he smilingly declined recruitment to a water-pistolling game of ], which would that Michaelmas Term entertain 128 students. Instead he invited its fun-loving Umpire to dine with him in the University Centre, beginning a lifelong age-gap friendship of mutual psychic benefit. Oftentimes afterwards, they would luncheon together at the nearby Garden Moat House hotel, overlooking the ]. In the summer of 2001, he gladly let the younger man and his girlfriend drive him to the east coast, for a perfect day out on ] blue flag beach. He lived alone, but cherished his friends. In early 2002, on the morning of his 87th birthday, he reached up into a wall cupboard and tragically stumbled backwards against the corner of a table, injuring his lower back. (In hindsight, all such sharp corners should be rounded off with a sanding disk, in the ].) The young couple arrived from Shropshire thinking to celebrate his birthday with him, but hearing his lament, they quickly called for a doctor, who opined that ] was a danger. Of three different levels of ] offered to him, Gerd chose the medium, since the strongest would shorten his life. Knowing sepsis resulting from his injury would likely accelerate his death, he declined to consider ], saying he preferred to live whatever might remain of his lifespan only around those generations he already knew, despite his philosophy of ] lamenting his consciousness would be bound for ]. After a month of homecare, he had to enter a hospital run by ], into which he had long paid healthcare premiums, with little to no prior claim upon their service. They quickly transferred him to the excellent local NHS hospital, ], where over several weeks spanning Easter, he was able to talk fondly with all his friends, until death sadly came in late April. His well-attended funeral was held at Cambridge Crematorium on 7th May, and his ashes were later buried by many devotees among the roots of a sapling planted at ], in honour of its former teacher. | |||
| ==Presumption of Innocence== | |||
| The presumption of innocence is a principle, enshrined in English Law, essential to make us civilised. | |||
| Our British war hero ] was punished brutally for homosexuality and driven to suicide, despite later being voted the ] of the Twentieth Century. Like him, Gerd came to feel in young adulthood that he was gay, but lived during decades when such healthy sexuality was unjustly criminalised, and therefore had to be concealed, limiting his chance to find a life-partner. Nevertheless, with close friends of all sexuality, he opened up this part of himself, while never imposing it. Though gentlemanly, he enjoyed humour and sharing anecdotes, so there had been scope for misinterpretation of his comedy by puritans and people lacking self-confidence. | |||
| The only vocal critic of Gerd has an eponymous website which discusses his own autism. He similarly describes the unnamed claimant (possibly himself in anonymity) as living with schizoid personality & Asperger's Syndrome, and nebulously refers to six critics who have never come forward. His typo-ridden website lambasts many people. We might speculate he fell out with Gerd, and has sought to amplify his obloquy eightfold, with nobody bothering to verify any other critic exists. | |||
| '''Following reversion of this page back to an unlawful state,''' editor should supply a postal address for service upon him of legal documents. If he does not want to be sued for '''defamation''' by the estate of Gerd Sommerhoff and Sevenoaks School, he should publish evidence that the unnamed civil claimant was not '''Stuart Neilson himself''', the same man as made a '''statement of complaint''' to Kent Police, which could not even choose to bring forth an '''allegation''' because the person complained about was long dead, despite having clung to long life (in a well-publicised location) and given decades of earlier opportunity to complain. A newspaper hack uncritically repeating the words of a self-confessed autistic does not equal a source, when those very words have been removed from the newspaper website, for good reason, because they were libellous. The article is no longer a source, since it has been rescinded. The claimant's lawyer's musings were not tested in a civil trial, since the school insurers may have preferred to toss her a pound coin ("a not insignificant amount") as full and final settlement. | |||
| The above mentioned editor's ''lawful'' contribution to the '''Further reading''' section below has been retained. Both Gerd's early & final days will be fully sourced with his published autobiography and its biographical addendum, which is set to be uploaded as an e-book within days, and linked from the '''Works''' section above. | |||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
| {{Reflist}} | {{Reflist}} | ||
| Line 41: | Line 26: | ||
| ==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
| *{{cite journal | title = Obituary - Gerd Sommerhoff (1905-2002) | journal = Kybernetes | date = 1 June 2005 | volume = 34 | issue = 5 | issn = 0368-492X | doi = 10.1108/k.2005.06734eab.007 | pmid = | url = }} | *{{cite journal | title = Obituary - Gerd Sommerhoff (1905-2002) | journal = Kybernetes | date = 1 June 2005 | volume = 34 | issue = 5 | issn = 0368-492X | doi = 10.1108/k.2005.06734eab.007 | pmid = | url = }} | ||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| {{Authority control}} | {{Authority control}} | ||
Revision as of 18:52, 30 December 2022
Gerd Walter Christian Sommerhoff OBE (for services to education) was born on 13th February 1915, in Wiesbaden, Germany and died on 28th April 2002, in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom. He was a pioneer & lifelong advancer of theoretical neuroscience and a noted humanist.
A great-grandson of the German composers Robert Schumann and his wife Clara, he was living in England at the outset of the Second World War. Being a foreign national, he blamelessly suffered more than two years in an internment camp in Canada before decompressing back in England, where he took up a post teaching science at the Dragon School in Oxford. While there, he laid the foundation for Educational Technology (for which he was honoured by our late queen) using boxes of numbered cards, containing questions, answers, tutorial material, or descriptions of experiments, on a variety of different subjects. He became a Research Fellow in Systems Theory at University College London, and presented science programmes for the BBC from 1960 to 1962, before being recruited to teach technology in Sevenoaks School in 1963 by headmaster Kim Taylor.
Some of his students were Tim Hunt, Alan Macfarlane, John Paul Morrison,
Early life and family
Gerd Sommerhoff and his twin sister were born in Wiesbaden, Germany, to Elizabeth Ruher and Walter Georg Sommerhoff, a wealthy banker who was born in New York to Elise Schumann, the second child of Robert and Clara Schumann. The Sommerhoff family resided in Haarlem, Netherlands, until the loss of the family fortune in the Wall Street crash and the death of their father "in compromising circumstances". The two younger children moved to Ryde on the Isle of Wight in 1931 with their mother Elizabeth Sommerhoff when she married Major Bernard Francis Anne Vernon-Harcourt, while their elder brother, Walter Hans Sommerhoff, emigrated to Santiago, Chile.
Gerd Sommerhoff studied engineering at Zurich Polytechnic (now ETH Zurich) and philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University. Although Gerda Sommerhoff was exempted from internment as an enemy alien in 1939, Gerd Sommerhoff was interned in Canada until 1942. Gerda Sommerhoff, a model for Vogue magazine, sculptor and photographer, emigrated to Santiago, Chile, where she married Juan Eduardo Subercaseaux and had five children. Upon release from internment, Gerd Sommerhoff taught science at the Dragon School and presented science programmes for the BBC from 1960–1962 before being recruited to Sevenoaks School in 1963 by headmaster Kim Taylor.
Child sexual abuse
Alice Hemmings reported allegations of sexual abuse dating from 1976 in The Sevenoaks Chronicle. The assault was reported to the Kent Police force by Stuart Neilson in 2012. Gerd Sommerhoff was also alleged to have displayed pornography to pupils and to have made obscene remarks including boasts of bestiality. Sevenoaks School agreed to settle a compensation claim by another pupil alleging sexual abuse by Gerd Sommerhoff at Sevenoaks School when he was 12 years old. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, Tracey Emmett, "Sommerhoff’s abuse may have been suspected by those who worked with him." Several further witnesses and victims have subsequently been identified, indicating that Gerd Sommerhoff was a preferential paedophile attracted to pubescent boys.
Works
- 1950: Analytical Biology
- 1974: Logic of the Living Brain
- 1990: Life, Brain and Consciousness
- 1994: An Account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences. Integrative Physiology and Behavioral Science. With Karl F. MacDorman.
- 2001: Understanding Consciousness – its function and brain processes.
References
- Richard Brown Baker family papers
- Intellectual Autobiography by Richard Sorabji. In Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought: Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji, By Ricardo Salles. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-926130-7.
- J. Paul Morrison's autobiography. Accessed 16 June 2009.
- Brian Scragg, Sevenoaks School, A History (1993)
- Autobiography of Nobel Prizewinner Tim Hunt
- J. Paul Morrison's autobiography. Accessed 7 July 2016.
- Gerd Sommerhoff, Obituary, The Times, Friday 17 May 2002
- Brian Scragg, Sevenoaks School, A History (1993)
- Hemmings, Alice (8 November 2012). "Dead Sevenoaks teacher Gerd Sommerhoff accused of sexual abuse". Sevenoaks Chronicle. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- Doran, Sean-Paul (7 November 2013). "Sevenoaks School settles sex abuse case out of court". Sevenoaks Chronicle. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- Doran, Sean-Paul (18 November 2013). "Sevenoaks School teacher had 'six more victims' of sex abuse, claims accuser". Sevenoaks Chronicle. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd; MacDorman, Karl (1994). "An account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences". Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science. 29 (2): 151–181. doi:10.1007/BF02691012. PMID 7947330. S2CID 17193883.
- Sage Publishers
Further reading
- "Obituary - Gerd Sommerhoff (1905-2002)". Kybernetes. 34 (5). 1 June 2005. doi:10.1108/k.2005.06734eab.007. ISSN 0368-492X.