Kathleen M. SIMMONS

SIMMONS, KATHLEEN M (b. England, 1893; d. Port Augusta, SA, 3 Aug 1962). Brethren missionary to Australian Aborigines.

Kathleen Simmons was born into a godly family and at 14, following the death of her mother, was required to bring up two younger siblings. Subsequently, she trained as a teacher and emigrated to Australia during World War One to join her father and other family members who had come earlier. At the age of ten she was influenced by an invalided aunt and covenanted to be a missionary to black people. Seventeen years later, Simmons began to fulfil that vow.

Kathleen Simmons commenced missionary work in 1920 with the AIM in NSW and, in 1924, became the first resident missionary to the Aboriginal reserve at Cherbourg, Qld, and then, to the Aboriginal reserve on Palm Island. Here, in 1927, she met Merle Cantle (q.v.) and the two formed a life-long ministry partnership which only concluded with Simmons' death. Both missionaries resigned from the AIM in 1930 and soon afterwards joined the Brethren assembly in Rockhampton. Until this time Simmons had met with Baptist churches. The Brethren commended both women to Christian work amongst Aboriginal people. They began a work amongst Aboriginal children at Burketown, Queensland, before moving on to Doomadgee where they were pioneers in the Brethren mission established there in 1933.

In 1942 Simmons and Cantle accepted an invitation from Brethren leaders in SA to teach in a government-funded school for Aboriginal children in Port Augusta. They gained the confidence of both Aboriginal and government representatives and Simmons was appointed superintendent of the reserve called Umeewarra, a position previously only given to men. She remained at the reserve until her death when the town of Port Augusta gave her a full civic funeral with representatives from many government bodies acknowledging the contribution she had made to the welfare of Aborigines in her 20 years of ministry in South Australia and an earlier 20 years in NSW and Queensland.

Merle Cantle, Jewels of Fine Gold (Sydney, 1980); K J Newton, A history of the Brethren in Australia with particular reference to the Open Brethren (Fuller Seminary diss, 1990)

KEN J NEWTON