b. 24/11/1876 Lambeth, London. d. 1st Q 1956 Bournemouth.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 20/08/1912 Bournemouth Railway Station.
Walter Charles was one of five sons born to James Charles and Maria Simmons (nee Skipp) in Lambeth, London on 24th November 1876. He was baptised at St John the Evangelist Church in Lambeth on 21st January 1877. Walter grew up in Lambeth, by the time of the 1901 Census, he was living in Bournemouth where he was a boarder with the Willett family. He had gained employment as a railway porter at Bournemouth Station. On 19th May 1902 in St Mary’s Church, Puddletown, he married Alice Maud Mary Parsons. Walter and Alice would have three daughters, Iris (born 1907), Joyce (born 1911) and Kathleen (born 1914). Walter was awarded the Edward Medal for the rescuing of a woman who had jumped on the tracks on the 20th August 1912. By the time of Kathleen’s birth in 1914, the family were now living in Christchurch, Hampshire. Walter was widowed in 1926, when Alice died aged 49 in Winchester. Walter remained a widower for the rest of his life, and passed away in 1956 aged 79.
EM CITATION:
On 20 August,1912, as an express passenger train was entering Bournemouth Station, a woman jumped from the platform in front of the engine.The driver promptly applied the brakes and sounded the whistle; but was unable to stop the train until the engine had passed the spot where the woman jumped down. Simmons’s attention was attracted by the whistle when the engine was about 12 yards away, and, without an instant’s hesitation, he jumped off the platform on to the permanent way, and succeeded in lifting the woman clear of the rails and holding her against another train, which was stationary on an adjoining line, neither of them sustaining injury. There is no doubt whatever that the rescue was effected by Simmons at the risk of his life, and any delay or hesitation would, in all probability have resulted in fatal consequences.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD. BEING SOLD AT NOONANS ON 24TH MAY 2023 ESTIMATE £1,000-£1,400.
Acknowledgement:
Dix Noonan Webb – Image of Walter Simmons’ Edward Medal.