Rose Simmonds (née Culpin)   (1877 - 1960)

Rose was the daughter of Dr Millice Culpin (1846-1941). The Culpin family immigrated to Australia in 1891 and Dr Culpin established a general practice in Brisbane.

She married John Howard Simmonds (1862-1955) in 1900, and they had two sons, John Howard (Jack) Simmonds (1901-1992) and Millice Alan Simmonds (1905-1983).

Rose was active in photography from about 1927 through to 1940. She experimented with pictorialist and creative photography and was involved in many public exhibitions.

Her work was described as 'painterly' and reminiscent of the Impressionist movement.

About 200 of her photos are now held in the Queensland Art Gallery, the John Oxley Library and the National Gallery of Victoria.

The contribution of Rose Simmonds to herbarium and fossil collections was mainly as support to her husband. Certainly a number of specimens were collected by her.

She is commemorated in Eugenia simmondsiae F.M.Bailey [= Syzygium australe (H.L.Wendl. ex Link) B.Hyland]

Herbarium specimens

Because her husband, J.H. Simmonds (Snr), and his wife Rose Simmonds collected as "Mrs J.H. Simmonds" using her husband's initials, and their eldest son J.H. Simmonds (Jnr,) had the same surname and 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: 1905, from reference above.