Frederick Walter Simms (24 December 1803 – 27 February 1865) was a British
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
.
Born in London, Simms suffered from ill-health in his younger years (as his obituary put it, he was "of delicate constitution",
[ and some difficulty was encountered in finding him suitable employment until via the influence of his brother he was despatched to ]Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
as an assistant to the Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was ...
.
After leaving Ireland Simms became an astronomical assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwic ...
, under John Pond. He resigned his post on 31 October 1835, apparently having hoped to be awarded the post of First Assistant, for which he was "quite incompetent" in the words of Sir George Biddell Airy
Sir George Biddell Airy (; 27 July 18012 January 1892) was an English mathematician and astronomer, and the seventh Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the E ...
.[ He returned to his former occupation as a surveyor and civil engineer, visiting France with Richard Tappin Claridge,][Obituary of Frederick Walter Simms, p.121][ who in the 1830s patented the use of Seyssel asphalt in the UK, and later working with Claridge on the introduction of ]