Frank Keith Simmons

Major-General Frank Keith Simmons, (21 February 1888 – 22 September 1952

Simmons (right) in Shanghai in January 1940 on the departure of British Consul General Sir Herbert Phillips (left).

Remaining in the army during the interwar period, Simmons married in 1922 and attended from 1922 to 1923 the Staff College, Camberley. Among his fellow students there included several future general officers, notably Thomas Hutton, Charles Fullbrook-Leggatt, John Evetts, Gerald Smallwood and Robert Money. After graduation from Camberley, he served as a staff officer at the War Office from 1924 to 1927. Divorcing his wife in 1926, he remarried the following year and transferred to the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.

Simmons then served as a Military Attache to Spain from 1928 until 1931, whereupon he then commanded the 2nd Battalion, Cameron Highlanders, from 1932 to 1936. He then commanded the Southern Brigade in British mandated Palestine, and later the commander of British defences at the Singapore Fortress in 1941. On 1 January 1941, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Men of the 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders demonstrate the Northover projector to Major General F. Keith Simmons, GOC Singapore Fortress, and other senior officers, 17 October 1941.

An ardent supporter of the concept that defence construction was detrimental to troop morale, Simmons was eventually placed in command of a committee to ascertain the readiness of Singapore's defences as the Japanese invasion became apparent. He was appointed to "develop" the defence plan by Lieutenant General Arthur Percival. As the situation worsened for the Allies, Simmons was one of a few commanders privy to Percival's last-ditch defence plans and his "no surrender" policy of 11 February 1942.

During the final days of the battle, Simmons was transferred and ordered to command the British forces in the 'Southern Area' of the battlefield.