Ken Simmons

Who is Ken Simmons?

Kenneth Edwin Laurence Ryder Simmons was a respected British ornithologist born in Kenton, Middlesex. He spent his early childhood in China and went to school in London, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. He completed professional training for a Teachers’ Certificate in 1946/7 and then took up a teaching post in Reading. It was at this time that he took up serious birdwatching and joined the British Ornithologists’ Union, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and, a year later, the British Trust for Ornithology. During a period of National Service from 1948-50 Simmons was posted to the Suez Canal Zone, Egypt where his observations of birds provided material for later published work. From 1947 onwards he published many notes and papers on birds. He became particularly interested in the taxonomic implications of certain simple behaviour patterns and in bird taxonomy generally and was listed in the 1961 Directory of Zoological Taxonomists. He was also a committee member, joint recorder and Chairman of the Reading Ornithological Club.

In February 1962 he moved to Ascension Island, as the island School Master, with his wife Marion as his assistant.