Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private F. H. Simmons, Royal Sussex Regiment, late Royal Navy, who was taken Prisoner of War at the Battle of Loos on 26 September 1915

1914-15 Star (G-7161 Pte. F. H. Simmons. R. Suss: R.) a few letters double struck; British War and Victory Medals (G-7161 Pte. F. H. Simmons R. Suss. R); together with a Royal Sussex Regiment cap badge and a pair of Royal Sussex Regiment brass shoulder titles, very fine (3) £70-£90

Frederick Harold Simmons was born in Cuckfield, Sussex in 1889. He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Domestic on 23 September 1907 and served aboard the cruiser H.M.S. Juno and H.M.S. Weymouth in the period October 1909 to September 1912, whereupon he left the service in the rate of Officer’s Cook 2nd Class. He attested for the Royal Sussex Regiment on 11 June 1915 and served with the 9th (Service) Battalion in France from 31 August 1915. Simmons was captured by the Germans on 26 September 1915 at the Battle of Loos and held prisoner of war until after the armistice. He was repatriated on 30 December 1918 and discharged Class Z Reserve on 1 April 1919. He died in 1936 at the age of 46, most likely as a result of the conditions he was held captive under, suffering severe frost bite while working the potato fields (information with lot provided by the recipient’s niece).