Received the following e-mail from Bob Mummery... 
As can be seen from the email string below, John was a well respected member of the Navy family in general and the MOBI family in particular. He had also been a remarkable advocate helping many ex service personnel with their claims to DVA.
John will be missed by many.
(Bob Mummery)
From: Bruce Sloper
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2018 6:18 PM
To: David C House
Cc:
Subject: Re: John Simmons RIP
Hahaaa Well said Fred. John would have been proud of us.
Just for everyone' s interest I got a real laugh out John's son Garth's address. Garth works in Singapore but was down here over Christmas so he had some nice private time with John. He had to return to Singapore and knew it would be the last conversation he had with his Father.
At one point Garth said to john, who was very weak, something like,
' dad you know you are failing and this might be our last time together, what do you think about that'
Simmo's response:
' I am not very happy about it!'
Still had a sense of humour. I know when I talked to him on the phone I would say ' you are not chasing those nurses are you. His response
' iwish, I am trying!
Regards
Bruce
Sent from my iPad
On 17 Jan 2018, at 6:08 pm, David C House <
dchouse@iinet.net.au> wrote:
Hi All
This is my account of the Great Farewell to Simmo.
Those attending from our term were:
Mal & Jan Creagh
Roger Fidler
Mick Fish
Pat Gordon
Fred House
Blue & Pat Jackson
Chris Ryan
Jim Stephenson
Peter Thompson
This was a really good roll up.
Other Mobi’s included
John and Jan Buttle
Bruce and Sharyn Sloper
Bob Moult
Tom Davies and probably another 5 or 6, whose names I can’t remember. I estimate there were probably 30 to 50 RSL Members, plus many Civvies from the local area.
Johns immediate and extended family took up the first 4 rows of seating at the venue.
Jacki was very composed and was pleased to see so much support attending.
A fantastic Eulogy was delivered by Johns eldest son Garth followed by personal Poems from Johns granddaughters.
I was given the opportunity to say a few words on behalf of our Intake and spoke about the strong bonds that John and the rest of us formed in our years at Nirimba.
Bruce Sloper gave a well delivered account of Johns further Career in the RAN on promotion to the Upper deck.
There was a Photographic Tribute, with time for reflection on Johns life.
A Poppy dedication followed and all Mobi’s were invited to form a Guard of Honour at the rear of Johns Casket.
This was followed by the Ode, Last Post and Reveille. The Naval Hymn closed the Service
We then repaired to the Cooroy RSL for the Wake. The RSL was Chockers, light finger food was on tap and so were the drinks. The Qld State Branch and Cooroy Sub Branch footed the Bill which would have been enormous. A group of us stayers had a meal at the local Thai Restaurant at around 6.00pm this lasted for a couple of hours and we thank the very generous donor for a fine repast. Of course we thought we needed a top up before attempting to cross the Railway Bridge so it was back to the RSL for “Coffee” The photo attached is the table that Simmo sat at whilst doing the job of the Pensions Advocate for the District and many others. We left his seat vacant as a mark of respect. The bloke with the whiskers is a 2RAR Vet who Patrick ordained as an Honorary Mobi. I won’t bore you with further details needless to say Johns Life was well Celebrated, he would have been with us in spirit I feel sure.
Below are some of Pats recollections
We missed you Sash. You would have enjoyed Simmos do! It was full of remarkable highs and lows. After all how can one have such fun at a funeral? We bonded with everyone! Even fid trying to check the sheilas tyre pressure on the railway bridge in the dark. Thank the lord i was sober (just joking). Fred was magnificent. Buttle was magnanamous. Sloper got irritated with the grunt. I liked the grunt. Blue had us laughing with his shot in the leg story. Near the end we outstayed all the drunks. Remaining to take a pic of simmos vacant seat was fred, mike, fid, pat and the soldier ( the grunt). I deny everything i have said, still got a headache. If you want true story ask Fred
David House
29 Sholl Ave
North Beach WA 6020
08 94488944
0409317411
