Major John M Simonds

John Mellor Simonds was the son of Lord Simonds and Mary Simonds and the husband of Ada Simonds, of St Helens, Lancaster. His twin brother Gavin Alexander Simonds died in 1951 as a result of illness contracted on active service during the Second World War. Because their elder brother Robert Francis Simonds had died in infancy, the Viscounty became extinct when Lord Simonds died in 1971.

John Simonds took his BA at Cambridge in 1938 and was called to the Bar in the Inner Temple in 1939. On the outbreak of war he was commissioned in the North Staffordshire Regiment and became a Captain in July 1942. He volunteered for airborne forces and was part of 1st Airborne Division from its formation, being attached to 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment.

Captain Simonds took part in operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, in July 1943 and was rescued from the sea when his glider was released short of the land.

Major Simonds next took part in operation Market Garden, Arnhem, as Second-in-Command of the Battalion and OC HQ Company. He was wounded on 19 September 1944 and died of his wounds on 25 September, aged 29. His grave has never been found and he is commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial to the Missing.

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