Simmonds, John Howard [Snr]   (1862 - 1955)

He was born 15 July 1862 in Carlton, Victoria, and died 11 June 1955 in Brisbane.

He represented the third generation of a family of stonemasons.

At the age of 18 years he was apprenticed to his father. Upon the death of his father in 1889, he (at 27 years old) took over the business and continued to operate the company under its original name and the business only ceased operating with his retirement in 1920 at the age of 58.

A characteristic feature of many of his work is the carvings of garlands of flowers, a somewhat signature style that set him apart from other stonemasons then working in Brisbane.

He married English-born Rose Culpin (1877-1960) in 1900, and they had two sons, John Howard (Jack) Simmonds (1901-1992) and Millice Alan Simmonds (1905-1983).

It appears that Simmonds (Snr) first took an interest in geology and botany in the early 1880s when he began to collect fossil specimens in the Ipswich area and established a personal collection. He also began to make donations to the Queensland Museum at that time.

He was a founding member of the Royal Society of Queensland [RSQ] which was established in 1884.

This placed him in contact with scientists such as Frederick Manson Bailey (botanist), John Frederick Bailey (botanist), Thomas Lane Bancroft (naturalist), Lewis Adolphus Bernays (economic botanist), Charles Walter de Vis (zoologist), Robert Logan Jack (geologist), Joseph Lauterer (botanist), John Shirley (lichenologist and botanist) and Henry Tryon (entomologist) amongst others.

He was appointed as a Committee Member at the first meeting of the Field Naturalists' section within the RSQ. At that time the Field Naturalists' section was very active, and by July 1887 had completed 19 field excursions mostly as half or full day-trips within the Brisbane region.

His greatest productivity as a botanical collector was during his association with the RSQ. However, many specimens collected during the excursions were simply labelled as the 'Field Naturalists' without reference to individuals, and such specimens cannot be included unquestionably among his collections.

His membership of the RSQ lapsed between 1903 and 1923, but he re-joined in 1924 (along with his son, John Howard Simmonds [Jnr]), and remained in continuous membership until his death in 1955.

He is commemorated in the plants Ficus simmondsii F.M.Bailey [= Ficus watkinsiana F.M.Bailey], Liparis simmondsii F.M.Bailey [= Diteilis simmondsii (F.M.Bailey) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones] and Psychotria simmondsiana F.M.Bailey; the liverwort Frullania simmondsii Steph.; the fossil plants Araucarioxylon simmondsii Shirley, Ginkgo simmondsii Shirley [= Ginkgoites simmondsii (Shirley) Florin], and Stachyopitys simmondsii Shirley [= Umkomasia simmondsii Shirley]; and the fossil beetle genus Simmondsia Dunstan.

Herbarium specimens

Because Simmonds (Snr), his son Simmonds (Jnr,) had the same surname ane initials, and his wife Rose Simmonds collected as "Mrs J.H. Simmonds" using her husband's initials, there is much confusion as to individual collectors. Over 2,000 specimens are known as being collected by "Simmonds, J.H." and the paper by Dowe (2017), [LINK], attempts to analyse these collections.

Source: Extracted from:
Dowe, John Leslie (2017).
A family's contribution to Queensland botany: John Howard Simmonds [Snr] (1862-1955), Rose Simmonds [née Culpin] (1877-1960) and John Howard Simmons [Jnr] (1901-1992).
Austrobaileya 10(1): 168-183.
Portrait Photo: as above.