Lieutenant Colonel Charles St Clare Simmons Obituary, 1932 – 2025
Lieutenant Colonel Charles St Clare Simmons
1932 – 2025
late Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd)
The Royal Green Jackets
The announcements of the death of few officers of the Regiment, even those of much higher rank, have provoked such a flurry of spontaneous bouquets from his brother officers as has that of Charles Simmons, who died on 26th November, two days after his 93rd birthday.
He was one of a dwindling band who saw significant and distinguished service in one of the former regiments, having been commissioned from RMAS, after Sherborne School, into the 1st Battalion, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in February 1953. He was following his father, Lt Col Edward Simmons, who had served in the 52nd, and may have been with them when Charles, his second son, was born in Rangoon in 1932. Charles, therefore, was a child of the Empire, and it may be that he lived his life with the high values, capacity for hard and tough work, modesty and the ability to get on with every sort of person that so marked officers of that era.
His introduction to the Regiment was, however, far from the steamy jungles of his youth or his later operational service. He joined Letter C Company, later becoming mortar officer, in Osnabruck. He probably welcomed the change of scene when, in 1956, he moved with the Regiment to Cyprus, taking on the more challenging roles of battalion intelligence officer and, later, signals officer. The Regiment was based in Polymedhia Camp just outside Limassol at the height of the difficult EOKA terrorist campaign and was responsible for the whole of the Limassol District. Information about the terrorists was scarce and had to be worked for, so Charles set about that with his usual enthusiasm and efficiency. His resourceful and bold schemes as IO, at one time using Greek-speaking Riflemen leading discreetly purchased donkeys as pack services for hire to infiltrate suspect communities, led to the award of a mention-in-despatches in 1958.
He was signals officer when the Regiment moved to Knook Camp, Warminster, by which time he had served in the Battalion for eight years. He was due for a break and took it with a six-month secondment to 11th Kings African Rifles based near Nairobi. This, one of the KAR Battalions to have fought in Burma and, in its home country of Kenya, in the recently concluded Mau-Mau campaign, would have offered Charles the further experience of counter-insurgency operations. However, much as he might have regretted the short tour, he was obliged to return to UK for the longer Army Staff Course including Shrivenham. The course finished at the close of 1962. Perhaps because he had yet to be promoted substantive Major, he returned to 1 Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd) as Adjutant to Lt Col Tod Sweeney, serving on operations in the far east.
The Battalion was based in Penang when operations started in Brunei. Placed at immediate notice to move on operations, with very short time to change from a relatively relaxed routine, with, for example, some officers away in another garrison in Malaya playing in a polo tournament, it fell to Charles to coordinate the move, bring the Battalion to readiness to move in less than the notice-to-move time, set up a fully functioning HQ in record time and calmly bring the rifle companies and echelons into operations in a distant and completely new operational area.
The staff appointment, which appears to have been delayed by a year, was to be Brigade Major of 5th Infantry Brigade, based in UK but deployed as strategic reserve to operate in Borneo. His organisational and leadership abilities as Adjutant in theatre probably preceded him. This was a prestigious appointment. Early promotion and command of a regular battalion might have been expected, but in the newly formed Regiment in the late 1960s there was a glut of talent and Charles had to wait a further three years at regimental duty in 3 RGJ and as an instructor on the company commanders’ course until promotion and appointment as GSO1 (Ops/Plans) at HQ UKLF.
CO The Rifle Depot (still wearing gorget buttons!)
Command of the Rifle Depot, in succession to his elder brother James, followed from early 1975. Although the training programme continued to follow a well-established routine, there were increasing signs that retrenchment in defence spending following the 1974 review threatened the continuation of regimental recruit training at Peninsula Barracks. To be CO at the depot at this time would have been blighted by the visits of Study teams examining options and coping with frequently changing recruiting policy for the infantry. Despite these irksome distractions, Charles’s time at the Depot was marked by the ever-improving humanity in the way Greenjacket recruits and Junior Riflemen were treated by their instructors, success in service rifle shooting at the highest level, lots of sport and huge public relations successes, particularly around the time of HM The Queen’s jubilee. In all these things Charles’ understated but firmly guiding hand was evident.
Leaving the Depot in late 1977, Charles joined the Special List and found a happy niche at the Regular Commissions Board, remaining there after retirement from the Regiment in 1986 as an RO until, as he put it, “standing at ease” in 1997 after 44 years of service. Being a keen gardener and an ornithologist of note he was able to continue these interests, although he hadlong had to give up his early and pioneering passion for windsurfing.
Charles married Susan (Su) in 1967. They have two children, Dougal and Anabel. We offer them our deepest condolences and, with them, mourn the loss of a much-loved father andgreatly respected and admired brother officer.
TRH-B (with help from RAP and PGC)
Address for condolence letters:
Mrs C. St.C. Simmons (Su)
Highlands,
Sutton End,
Crockerton,
Warminster,
Wiltshire
BA12 8BG.
The funeral is planned for Monday 8th December at 3.00 pm at Semington Crematorium BA14 6HL. This note may not reach in time those who otherwise might have wished to attend. Apologies.