JACK SIMMONS
Boat Train / Fenchurch Driver
By Peter Simmons
Here is a cutting from the Evening Star dated Wednesday January 17th. 1945.
The picture is of my father Jack (Bogey) Simmons and as the text says; "Jack Simmons of Newhaven who drove the last boat train from Paris in 1940 and brought to London the first boat train to arrive since then."
The second picture is the original by the Star photographer showing somewhat more of the Atlantic class engine as well as the fireman, to whom I cannot put a name, but I guess someone will recognise. In latter years Jack drove the Fenchurch and her cousins over the bridge to the sheet loft and down to the breakwater. After a back injury he worked in the stores/office at the old engine sheds and retired in 1961.