After education at
Sherborne School in Dorset he studied at
Pembroke College, Cambridge, and
St Thomas's Hospital London. From 1939 to 1941 he worked with W. Rowley Bristow at St Nicholas's Hospital Pyrford (subsequently renamed
Rowley Bristow Hospital Pyrford), and when Rowley Bristow became Brigadier in charge of orthopaedic services of the British Army, he recruited Simmonds into the
Royal Army Medical Corps. Lt Col Simmonds commanded base hospitals in North Africa, Sicily, France and the Far East. After the war he returned to Pyrford and worked there and at
The Royal Surrey County Hospital Guildford until his retirement in 1975. His simple but effective test for rupture of the Achilles tendon was developed in 1956/57 and is still widely used today. A golf
Blue (university sport) at Cambridge, his clinical skill with his hands was mirrored in lifelong amateur golf expertise; his 0 (zero) handicap for most of his adult life equalled that of a professional. ==References==