Notes
The Roll lists no address for him. It inaccurately records that his name was "J G Simmons", and that he died 'from gas poisoning and shell shock'. (The Roll of Honour's entry was based on a report printed on 7/12/1918 in the Peterborough Advertiser, which stated that "Private J G Simmons" of Peterborough "late Queen's Royal West Surreys" had died from gas and shell-shock in Brighton Hospital, and had been buried at Brighton Cemetery with full military honours. The mourners were reported to have included his widow and 7 children, plus the matron, staff and comrades from West House Hospital. The man to whom the press report and Roll of Honour was alluding was in fact John George Simmonds, who died aged 40 on 14/11/1918 in Brighton from an illness unrelated to War service.
(John George Simmond's birth had been registered in Whittlesey in 1878. On the 1881 census he had been living with his parents Charles and Elizabeth Ann Simmonds in London Road, Fletton, Peterborough. In 1897 John married Gertrude Maud Wilkinson. On the 1901 census they and their children were living at St Margaret's Road in Old Fletton; on the 1911 census they were living at 14 Cavendish Street in Peterborough. John's Army service file records that he was aged 38, working as an attendant at Banstead Asylum in Sutton, when he was called up on 6/1/1917; his next of kin was his wife Gertrude Maud nee Wilkinson of 83 St John's Street in Peterborough, who he stated he had married on 16/11/1897 at South Lynn Church in Norfolk. The file records that John was mobilized on 3/3/1917 and posted as a Private in the 22nd Battalion Royal West Surrey Regiment under regimental number 52574. He served in the UK from 6/1/1917 to 12/3/1917, when he was sent to France; he transferred to the 130th Labour Company on 9/5/1917, and his regimental number became 77808. On 19/5/1917 he was admitted to No 4 Stationary Hospital, and on 22/5/1917 he returned to the UK. In July 1917 John was admitted to Wharncliffe War Hospital, where he underwent a Medical Board on 13/7/1917 that resulted in his honourable discharge from the Army on 3/8/1917, due to being no longer fit for military service. The Army doctor specified that, in his opinion, John's disability had not been caused by military service. (John had informed the doctor that he had "always been short of breath"). John was awarded the Silver War Badge serial number 132968. The death certificate of John George Simmonds records that he died on 14/11/1918 at West House, Portland Place in East Brighton; the cause of death was morbus cordis (i.e. heart disease); his occupation was listed as ex Private, Queen's Royal West Surrey Labour Company; his death was registered by his widow G.M. Simmonds, whose address was recorded on the certificate as 81 St John's Street, Peterborough. John's Army file records that, following his death, his widow was awarded an Army pension. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have no record of John. As he was discharged from the Army due to a condition that was deemed to have been neither attributable to nor aggravated by his military service, he does not meet the criteria for inclusion on their Casualty Register).