Engineer Lieutenant 

Tom 

SIMONDS

Royal Navy

Died On:
Aged:
13 October 1915

27

Tom Simonds was born at Tottenham, Middlesex, on 16 March 1888, the third son and one of six children of Thomas Simonds, a farmer and butcher, and his wife Catherine Walls Simonds (née Stuart).  The family later moved to Lovehurst Manor at Staplehurst, Kent, and then to Leytonstone, Essex, where Tom attended Forest School at Walthamstow.

Tom Simonds joined the Royal Navy in 1904 and, after four years as an Engineer Cadet at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Devonport, was promoted Engineer Sub-Lieutenant in July 1908. After service in the scout cruisers HMS FORWARD and FORESIGHT,  he joined the pre-dreadnought battleship LORD NELSON where he was promoted Engineer Lieutenant in August 1910.  In October 1912 he was appointed to HMS BONAVENTURE ‘and for duty with Submarines’. On the outbreak of WW1 he was appointed to the Grand Fleet depot ship HMS CYCLOPS ‘for repair work’ , but was to return to submarine duties at the end of 1914.

He was appointed to HMS PACTOLUS from 8 December 1914, as Engineer Officer ‘And for duty with Submarines’. At this point in the War, PACTOLUS was serving as submarine depot ship at Ardrossan, Scotland, and hosted the Ninth Submarine Flotilla comprising HMS A10, A11 and A12.

He died on 13 October 1915 at Ayr County Hospital ‘after a long illness’ and was buried in Ayr Cemetery.  He left a widow, Mary Phyllis (née Fraser), whom he had married in June 1913.

 

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