Family History, Simmons Chart 0407 George William Simmons and Margaret Offor

1881 Census - 26 Southborough Road, Hackney, London 1891 Census - 30 Gore Road, Hackney, London 1901 Census - 30 Gore Road, Hackney, London. 1911 7 Fletching Road, Lower Clapton, London. George William SIMMONS is down as Son in Law with his wife Margaret and child Catherine Louisa SIMMONS aged 1 born Hackney, Middlesex. They are with Margaret's parents who are Henry OFFOR aged 69 retired born Hackney, London and Margaret OFFOR aged 70 born City of London, they have been married 38 years. also with them is a son Richard aged 29 an Assistant Librarian, born Hackney, London. 1911 7 Fletching Road, Lower Clapton, London. George William SIMMONS is down as Son in Law with his wife Margaret and child Catherine Louisa SIMMONS aged 1 born Hackney, Middlesex. They are with Margaret's parents who are Henry OFFOR aged 69 retired born Hackney, London and Margaret OFFOR aged 70 born City of London, they have been married 38 years. also with them is a son Richard aged 29 an Assistant Librarian, born Hackney, London. 1911 7 Fletching Road, Lower Clapton, London. George William SIMMONS is down as Son in Law with his wife Margaret and child Catherine Louisa SIMMONS aged 1 born Hackney, Middlesex. They are with Margaret's parents who are Henry OFFOR aged 69 retired born Hackney, London and Margaret OFFOR aged 70 born City of London, they have been married 38 years. also with them is a son Richard aged 29 an Assistant Librarian, born Hackney, London. On 17th March 2011 I received the following as part of a long email from a Mary SIMMONS regarding Catherine Louisa: Catherine Louisa Simmons daughter of George W Simmons(my aunt) was born in 1910', I think 21/01/10. She trained as a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital and went out to China with OMF as a missionary doctor. She fled across China when the Japanese invaded and met my uncle Chris Maddox in SW China where he was also working as a missionary doctor. They married I think in 1946 in Alderley Edge Cheshire where his family lived. They had no children. They worked under the Communists in China until thrown out in 1952 and were then responsible for building Manorom hospital in Thailand. They later worked for Asian Christian service in Laos and with refugees in Thailand when thrown out of Laos by the communists. I think that there should be a Times obituary for Chris Maddox on the internet. Catherine died in August 1980 at her brother (my father's) home in Guernsey Channel islands. Chris Maddox later went back to live in Chiang Mai and died at Manoram hospital(2003 or 2004) I have found that Catherine wrote at least the following book: Paddy Field Hospital - The Story of Manorom Obituary for Frederick Christopher (Chris) MADDAX From The Times February 5, 2004 Dr Christopher Maddox Energetic medical missionary who served in Bangkok and remained in China after the Communist victory CHRIS MADDOX’S principal legacy is the Manorom Hospital, 150 miles north of Bangkok. It opened in 1956 with what was probably the world’s first integrated leprosy programme. A specialist Aids unit was added in 1997, and an extended outpatients department opened in 2002. Built on a paddy field, the hospital was at first susceptible to fast flooding — on one occasion a surgeon was up to her knees in water before she could finish sewing up a patient and evacuate — but flood defences were later put in place. It was in 1936 that Chris Maddox joined the China Inland Mission, once derided in Parliament as “the pigtail mission” because its early members followed Chinese custom in growing a cue. Maddox, bound for China’s hinterland, sailed to Shanghai from Southampton on the Empress of Britain on October 1, 1938, the day Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich promising “peace in our time”. The Sino-Japanese conflict was already well advanced. Frederick Christopher Maddox, the youngest of four children, was born in Hampstead to missionary parents who had served in Uganda. He was educated at Aldenham School, Trinity College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. As a student he was active in the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. In his circle of close friends were the future Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan and the distinguished Islamic scholar Professor Sir Norman Anderson. The Christian Union was then leading a nationwide evangelical movement in British universities known as the InterVarsity Fellowship; its rise was to result in the gradual decline of the more liberal Student Christian Movement. Maddox’s student days instilled in him a habit of daily Bible-reading before breakfast which he continued until he died. In 1948, after he had spent 12 years in China, his lifelong friend and mentor Douglas Johnson persuaded him and his wife Catherine, a fellow doctor, to spend a year on the staff of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, inviting university students to consider missionary service. The rookie missionaries who sailed to China in 1938 were unusually gifted, and they soon earned the nickname “the Sons of the Prophets”. Besides Maddox they included Rupert Clarke, the last missionary to leave China after the Communists came to power; A. J. Broomhall, the historian of China; and the author David Bentley-Taylor. Maddox and Broomhall were posted to Paoning (now Lanzhong), in Sichuan province, with its 60-bed hospital serving 3.5 million people. There was no running water, no drainage, and no electric lighting. In 1950 the Communists took over the hospital. Amid controversy with mission leaders, Maddox and his wife chose to remain, donning the navy blue uniforms and peaked caps of the Chinese Civil Service, and attending re-education meetings. Suddenly, though, in 1952, they were given 48 hours to leave, and with deep regret they made their way out of China via Chongqing, the wartime capital, and on down the Yangtze. Early the following year they returned to Asia to settle in Thailand. Their passage between Singapore and Bangkok was memorably shared with a giraffe bound for Bangkok zoo, stabled on the lower deck but with its head on a level with the passenger deck from where it was fed. Manorom Hospital had not only a specialised leprosy wing, but also a resident evangelist to work alongside the medical team. Outpatients listened to an explanation of the Christian faith as they waited to be seen, and several Thai Christian leaders were converted there. A nearby church was started in 1962 and is now sending out missionaries of its own. Maddox had a pragmatic edge; he was a tremendous initiator and forged ahead with plans faster than the mission leaders could fully absorb and weigh them. His style of decision-making could cause difficulties with his superiors, and eventually in 1969 the Maddoxes resigned from the mission. His own gifts were never in doubt, however. “He was a Moses,” said one colleague. Proceeding to Laos, they found the situation there a long way behind that in Thailand. Maddox formed a mobile medical team and then, in 1974, established a small medical centre, with government help, just off the north-south Highway 13, and close to the Mekong. This had to be evacuated the following year, though, when the Vietnamese-led Communists gained strength. Maddox was able to return twice, to hand over administrative responsibilities, and he and his wife received awards from the King. Maddox became the very last Knight of the Order of the Thousand Elephants of the White Parasol. In addition he was appointed OBE in 1980 and to the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand in 1984. He retired in 1987 to Chiang Mai, in north Thailand, where he made his home with one of several orphans he and his wife had unofficially adopted. He died back at Manorom Hospital, and is the first Caucasian to be buried in its cemetery. A biography of him by Stephen Hayes, Turbulence and Toeholds, was published in Thailand in 1991. Catherine Simmons, whom he had married in 1946, and whose warmth of personality had often compensated for his aloofness, died in 1980. Dr Christopher Maddox, OBE, medical missionary, was born on May 5, 1912. He died on January 7, 2004, aged 91. George and Fay moved to the Channel Islands. They had two children, both still living, Mary is one of the children and the person who has given me the information for this chart.

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This is a Chart for George William Simmons and Margaret Offor