Able Seaman, Merchant Navy, ss Train Ferry No 2. Died 13/06/1940. Age 28.

 

Born 2nd November 1911 in Berwick, Northumberland, the elder of two sons of John Martin Simmen and Jean Johnstone nee Smith. In 1938 John married Lilias Stoddart Anderson, in 1939 they were living with John's parents at 19 Hamilton Road, Felixstowe where his father was a confectioner & John was working as a transport manager. Their son John was born 3rd April 1940, three months before his father's death.

 

SS Trainferry No 2 was originally built to operate between Richborough, Kent and Dunkirk, during WW1. After the war it transferred to the Harwich-Zeebrugge route.

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Train Ferry no 2 was requisitioned in September 1939 to carry military traffic to and from Calais, then in June 1940, as part of Operation Cycle, to assist the evacuation of troops from St. Valery-en-Caux. On 13 June she was damaged by German shore batteries and beached and abandoned off Le Havre. John was one of 14 casualties, all of whom are commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial.  

 

Later she was refloated and became HMS Daffodil, before hitting a mine and sinking off Dieppe in 1945.