(1901-1973), researcher of mills

Herbert Edward Sydney Simmons, known by his friends as Syd, was born in Washington, Sussex in 1901. In his youth he was a member of the Cyclist's Touring Club, spending his weekends and holidays cycling the country. In 1931 he toured Kent photographic Mills, in 1932 East Anglia, taking 148 photographs, mostly of mills, and this continued throughout the 1930s. The photographs were printed on postcards and sold.

Simmons worked at the Ministry of Defence and during the war the RAF, stationed in Warwickshire and East Anglia. He continued researching mills after the war, with an aim to put in writing everything to do with mills in the British Isles. He amassed a vast amount of material, although Sussex, the South East, East Anglia and Lincolnshire were the most thoroughly covered. He had intentions to produce a book on Sussex windmills, but this never happened.

Sid was friends with other mill enthusiasts of the time, including Rex Wailes, Stanley Freese and Denis Sanders. He died in October 1973 at Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, his home of many years, and was survived by his wife Edna.