Family and Education
Simms was born in Hamburg Germany "of an old Warwickshire family", the son of Frederick Louis Simms and his wife Antonia née Hermans. His Birmingham-born grandfather had established a trading company there to support the Newfoundland fishing fleet. Frederick Richard Simms' first wife was Austrian, his second, married 1910, was Mabel Louise, daughter of cotton merchant Joseph Worsley and they had two daughters, one of which was Rosemary Mabel who married the Artist Dennis Ramsay. He was educated in Germany and London and at the Polytechnischer Verein in Berlin after completing an apprenticeship with AG fur Automatischen Verkauf in Hamburg and Berlin.
In a 1907 trip to the Alps, Simms discovered a waterfall near the village of Holzgau, now called the Simmswasserfall.
Simms may have spread his talents a little thinly to be able to show a single outstanding achievement. His lasting significance is in his role as a catalyst and intermediary between Britain and Europe and to a lesser extent USA.
He died in his 81st year, at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, while living at Storth Oaks, Chislehurst, Kent. His wife predeceased him.
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