PRIVATE LIONEL GUNDRY SIMMONDS
54TH BTTN CANADIAN INFANTRY
11TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 23
BURIED: RENINGHELST NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
We get a good indication of Lionel Simmonds' character from the description his father chose for his inscription: loving, fearless, unselfish and cheerful. Born in 1893 in Yatton, Somerset, Simmonds emigrated to Canada in 1912 and remained there, working on a farm in Halcyonia, Saskachewan, until he enlisted on 9 December 1915. He was killed in action at St Eloi on 9 September 1916.
The last line of the inscription, 'God took him' comes from Genesis 5:24, "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him". Enoch didn't die, God took him. Lionel Simmonds isn't dead, he's living with God.
Lionel Simmonds had a younger brother, Austin Gundry Simmonds, who joined the Friends Field Ambulance in October 1914 when he was 16, and served with them in France until September 1916 when he was old enough to apply for a commission. He was serving with the Special Reserve in Athlone Barracks in Ireland when he was accidentally drowned in Lough Ree on 2 June 1917 aged 19.