Stanley Wilfred Simmonds ARCA (29 October 1917 – 11 June 2006) was a British painter and art teacher. He was born in Droitwich, Worcestershire, in 1917, the third and youngest son of a relief signalman and a dressmaker. After a scholarship to the Royal Grammar School Worcester, he attended Birmingham College of Art from 1934 to 1939. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Navy, where he encountered the poet Charles Causley, who was to remain a lifelong friend. He painted a number of portraits of Causley, and the poet dedicated his 1970 book of poems for children, Figgie Hobbin to Simmonds and his wife. Serving aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Arbiter, he observed the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Service in the Far East awoke an interest in oriental art, which is re