There is very little information available as to his very early life and education.  His Father dying suddenly when he, Louis Michael, was 21 years old, it is possible that up to that time he assisted him in his business, and he may even have carried it on for some time afterwards. No doubt, after his Father’s death, he aspired to some more distinguished occupation, worthier of his education and talents.  In later years he showed himself to be a well-informed and well-read man, familiar with the contents of his large library ranging from Thiers to Darwin and from Fielding to Bishop Colenso.  Perhaps some hint of his self-education may lie behind his repeated advice to one of his grandsons:"  “When you come across a word you don’t understand, look it up in the dictionary”.

"He was certainly a theatre-goer, he spoke of players whom he had seen including Mrs. Siddons, and he told a funny story of a French performance of Macbeth, where the warning ran: “Monsieur Macbeth, Monsieur Macbeth, craignez Monsieur Macduff”.  He could and did quote Shakespeare freely, and he had a great many volumes of “The British Theatre”.

"The nature of Louis Michael’s business during his early years is described in family records which are however not very full and cannot now be supplemented by any remembered statements of his own.  It appears that he was for many years established as an Insurance Broker and Ship Broker in Fen Court, a narrow lane running north from the corner formed by No. 123, Fenchurch Street, and later moved to the latter address, with frontage on Fenchurch Street.  At some unknown date he entered into Partnership with a Mr. Thompson, and as early as 1823 they used to receive small consignments of Champagne from Messrs. Moët & Chandon of Epernay, through their Calais correspondents, for delivery to private customers in England.   On the 20^th February 1826, when times of peace had arrived, after the signature of the Treaty of Navigation between England and France, Louis Michael, who had taken up Stock Broking in addition to his other business, became a Member of the London Stock Exchange. He was then 44 years of age and he remained a Member of that body until 1870, when he was 88.  His office was originally at No. 10 Warnford Court, but at the end of his Membership it was situate at No. 6, Copthall Court, E.C.2."

"To the early eighteen-twenties, no doubt, belongs the well-authenticated anecdote that the coach on which Louis Michael was travelling to London was one day held up by a brewer’s dray drawn across the road whilst the irascible driver invited any passenger on the coach to get down and fight him.  Louis Michael accepted the challenge, fought and won, and drew the dray aside."

"In 1835, in consequence of the increase in the business, Messrs. Moët & Chandon decided to appoint a wholesale agent in London, and did so appoint Messrs. Simon & Thompson, choosing them in preference to Mr. Spiers, the correspondent at Calais, whose son afterwards became one of the partners in Spiers & Pond.  Louis Michael then retired from active participation in the  Fenchurch Street business, leaving its management to his eldest son George, then aged 25.The Moët & Chandon Agency has remained ever since with the Simon family, but Louis Michael had no share in it after 1835."

"It was in that year, 1835, that Louis Michael was elected to the Committee of the Stock Exchange, and he retired therefrom in 1868.  It is interesting to recall that at that time it was looked upon as being the “Father” of the Girdlers’ Company, of which he had been a Member since before 1824." 

"Some idea of his personality, and of the high esteem in which he was held by his colleagues, may be gathered from the following laudatory Resolution which was passed by the Committee of the Stock Exchange upon his retirement:-"

“RESOLVED:- That this Committee for General Purposes have received with great regret Mr. Simon’s resignation, and are desirous of recording their high appreciation of the ability and untiring energy with which he has during a very long period devoted himself to the official business of the Stock Exchange. They cannot but recognise that while their labours have been lessened by his large experience, the dignity of the Committee has been upheld and the best interests of the Stock Exchange have been greatly promoted by his strict impartiality and high sense of humour, and by the firm and independent manner in which he has on all occasions upheld right and discountenanced wrong”

"The Paragon, Louis Michael’s place of residence for 55 consecutive years, was a private road, of crescent shape, facing the south-eastern corner of Blackheath, with a private field in front of it. "Blackheath was at that time a country district offering only restricted coach services to London, 5 miles away.  There were fourteen houses in The Paragon, built in seven blocks linked by colonnades of which the pillars were said to have come from Bricklesmarch Park, a lately demolished neighbouring mansion.  At one end of The Paragon, was a porter’s lodge.  The houses were roomy but ill designed, and by modern standards not comfortable.  There were no dressing-rooms, no hot water service, no bath-rooms, and there were attic bedrooms and a semi-basement nursery.  In the Simon family, No. 10 became an institution and at the last became almost legendary.   “The Paragon” in their mouths meant that house and no other."

 "By the end of 1829 the family of fourteen children had all come into the world.  Four of them died young and the remaining ten (four boys and six girls) were of ages ranging from a few months to nearly twenty years.  George, the eldest, may not have lived in the house but the others must have done so, and the problem of their stowage is now insoluble !   There were governesses, of whom tradition long survived, and there must of course have been servants.  At that period, Louis Michael was 47 years old and his wife Matilda was 42.  Young as they were, they were evidently entering on the roles they were to fill for the rest of their lives; those of Paterfamilias and Materfamilias. Probably even then, Louis Michael’s mode of addressing his wife was the “Til, my love” which his descendants knew so well afterwards, while she would have addressed him as “Simon”, as she did invariably to the end of his life.  She, like all at Blackheath and most in the City, pronounced the name like the first two syllables of the word “Simonian”.  His figure was short and thickset, she was slight but must, when young, have been strong and active."

Ellen, the eldest living daughter, married Samuel Herman de Zoete in 1838.  Her father lived to see him Chairman of the Stock Exchange Committee.  Their daughter Ellen, first of the Simon grandchildren, was born in 1839.  Fanny Simon, in the same year, eloped in a post-chaise from Blackheath with Francis Macnamara Faulkner, hotly pursued in the same kind of conveyance by her father Louis Michael, accompanied by his solicitor Mr. White.  The escapade ended in a marriage, and one of the daughters, Jane, born 1852, afterwards became the adopted daughter of the childless Sir John Simon.  Louisa died in 1844, Maximilian married in 1846, and Frank, his twin, died in 1847.  John had long left home, and he married in 1848.

The Paragon household then consisted of the two old people and their three unmarried daughters Emma, Annette and Mary Kate.

In 1852, Louis Michael’s old and firm friend John Carey returned to England from America and became engaged to Annette Simon and joined Louis Michael’s stockbroking firm which was then “Simon & Son”, the son being Maximilian.  It then became “Simon, Son & Carey”, and soon afterwards, Maximilian having dropped out, it was, and remained to the end of the partnership “Simon & Carey”.

"An excellent portrait of Louis Michael, painted when he was nearly 90 years of age, is treasured in the Family.  With his benevolent expression, his flowing white hair falling almost to his shoulders, his long frock-coat, his high cravat, his white top hat and gold-handled cane, he must have been a most picturesque figure." 

 "It is recorded that on his death all the shops at Blackheath were closed as a mark of respect to his memory."