John Simmonds
ca. 1828 — 23 January 1889
John Simmonds (4‑3‑27)
John Simmonds was born in Blandford, Dorset around 1828, the eldest son of John Simmonds, builder and stonemason and Ann (née Pond). John sailed with his family from London aboard the Lady Eveline, arriving in Port Phillip in November 1852. Mary Jemima Coombs married John at Pelham Street, Melbourne on 17 December 1859. They had 10 children born in Victoria. John took over the family’s stonemason business on the death of his father in 1860.
John Simmonds founded a monumental masory business Brisbane in around 1880. His company created the beautiful momument to T.J. Byrnes and has family in Toowong Cemetery (7-47-5).
Monumental plans and headstone description - Thomas Joseph, Annie and Michael Vincent Byrnes ca. 1898 — Queensland State Archives, Item ID ITM1675894. Cropped and darkened.
John Simmonds took on his son, John Howard Simmonds (1862-1955), as an apprentice stonemason in 1880. He ran the business after his Father's death in 1889 until he retired in 1920.
J.H. Simmonds made a point of photographing the tombstones he worked on. He introduced photography to his wife, Rose Simmonds, who studied art with Godfrey Rivers at the Brisbane Technical College. A collection of Rose Simmonds' work is held by the Queensland Art Gallery. J.H. Simmonds was also a Naturalist who collected fossils and botanical specimens that are now held in the Queensland Museum and Queensland Herbarium.
St Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Ann Street, Brisbane, with stonemason next door, ca. 1915 - State Library of Queensland. In March 1896 John Simmonds moved his business to Ann-street, near Creek-Street and the Central Station.
Headstone
