|
THE BIOGRAPHY OF MAXIMILIAN FRANK SIMON 1848 - 1902 BY CHARLES GEORGE SIMON Maximilian Frank Simon was the eldest son of Maximilian Simon (1823 - 1903) and his first wife Eleanor Serena (née Engleheart). He was born at Lee in Kent on the 30th January 1848. He was educated at Christ's Hospital (Herts and London), reaching the grade of "Grecian", the members of which then as now had the privilege of wearing a circular metal badge on the left shoulder. He graduated with some distinction at St. Thomas's Hospital and was favourite competitor for the appointment of Superintendent of the Nursing Home at the Hospital. His Uncle, Sir John Simon, however, who was a Governor of the Hospital, on that account vetoed his appointment. The young doctor was thereby condemned to spend his useful life abroad. In 1873 or 1874 he entered the Colonial Medical Service and went to Kingston, Jamaica, as Colonial Surgeon. He was joined there by his fiancée Cornelia Georgina, daughter of Captain and Mrs. St. Leger, of Berry Farm, Clayhanger, Tiverton, Devon. Mrs St. Leger, formerly Miss Johnston, was grand-daughter of Captain Johnston and his wife, née Schuyler, the daughter of a Dutch Admiral. Cornelia Georgina St. Leger was born in Paris in May 1851, and lived later on at St. Omer, in the Pas-de-Calais, and at her home at Tiverton. It was at St. Mary Church, Torquay that she first met her future husband and it was at the Cathedral in Spanish Town that they were married in August 1872. About 1885, for reasons now unknown, Cornelia Georgina took the additional names of Constance Mainwaring. She died on May 19th 1923 at Spa House, Nottington, Weymouth, Dorset, and was buried at Radipole, Weymouth. In 1875 Maximilian Frank Simon was moved to the Straits Settlements where his eldest son Maximilian St. Leger was born at Malacca in 1876. His three other children were all born in Singapore, namely, Eleanor Beatrice on 13th October 1877, John Wellesley on 30th January 1879 and Percy Ralph on 17th September 1887. In 1880 he visited England with his wife and three elder children, and from then onwards he and his wife spent their lives in intermittent contact only with their young children, coming to England from the Straits Settlements when funds or the exigencies of the service permitted. In 1884 he came to England to obtain his diploma as a dental surgeon. This enabled him, for a time only, to supplement his income in the East to meet the growing calls made upon it by his young family as it grew up. His two elder sons went to Blundell's School at Tiverton, and later his youngest son to St. Paul's, Hammersmith. His daughter went to a private school at Woodford, Essex. In the late 1880's he contracted Asiatic cholera in Singapore and was numbered amongst the somewhat rare recoveries from that dangerous disease. In 1890 or 1891 he succeeded to the post of Principal Civil Medical Officer, Straits Settlements, and in 1894 came to England and took his M.D. degree at St. Andrew's University, passing his examinations first on the lists. In the East his efforts were directed largely against Asiatic cholera, in stamping out which disease from the Colony they were entirely successful. In 1891 he earned the grateful thanks of the Governor, Sir Cecil Clementi-Smith, for his care and success in the treatment of the Governor's daughter during an attack of typhoid fever. For this he was presented with a beautifully fashioned silver cigar box, made to the order of Sir Cecil and Lady Clementi-Smith. Maximilian, in his official capacity, was mentioned in Lady Annie Allnut Brassey's book, "A Voyage in the Sunbeam". The long and arduous service in the tropics undermined his health. He received through the Colonial Office the offer of a Knighthood which he declined, and on his retirement in 1900, came to England. By that date he had actually contracted tuberculosis. In 1901 he received the C.M.G. and died eighteen months later on 17th June 1902. His body lies with that of his wife in the Churchyard of the old Parish Church at Radipole near Weymouth in Dorset. ******* |