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The Housemaster, Assistant Housemasters and senior students are what keeps Somes House running efficiently. They are all very approachable, which ensures that all the boys settle into College life and have a rewarding and fantastic time, both in Somes House and the wider school.
Tom Clarke
Head of House 2021
Housemaster
Head of House
Deputy Housemaster/Mentor
Mentor
Mentor
Mentor
Mentor
Mentor
Somes House is the sixth dayboy House at Christ’s College. It was opened in 2000 with an intake of 32 boys, 16 of whom were in Year 9. Some boys moved from other Houses while others who came to College at various other year levels were also included.
It was decided to call the House “Somes” in recognition of Mrs Maria Somes, second wife of Joseph Somes, Governor of the New Zealand Company and an English member of Parliament. It appears that Mrs Somes was persuaded by the Bishop-Designate, Thomas Jackson to purchase a land order in England from the Canterbury Association in memory of her husband. She gave the land order to Christ’s College and when the lots for the land were drawn, John Robert Godley and William Guise Brittan selected two pieces of land. The first was a quarter acre town site adjacent to the Port of Lyttelton and the second was fifty acres of what was then rural land on the edge of Lyttelton. These lands are the basis on which the Somes Scholarships and Exhibitions continue to be awarded annually and, until Mrs Somes died, reports were sent regularly to England about the holders of the Scholarships.
The Somes House symbol is a fouled anchor — an anchor with a rope twisted around the shank and comes from the arms of Sir Joseph Somes.