Frederick Richard Simms (12 August 1863 – 22 April 1944)[note 2] was a British mechanical engineer, businessman, prolific inventor and motor industry pioneer.

[5] Following the signal success of Daimler-powered Peugeots and Panhards at the 1894 Paris-Rouen Trials, Simms decided to open a motor car factory.

He remained consulting engineer to Lawson's The Daimler Motor Company Limited but, perhaps wisely, did not join its board of directors.

[1] On 14 November 1896, Simms and Daimler took part in The Motor Car Club's Emancipation Day procession from London to Brighton, co-organised with H J Lawson, celebrating the lifting of the speed limit imposed by the Locomotives Act 1865 which had required vehicles to travel no faster than 4 mph (6.4 km/h).

In 1920, following the virtual destruction of the Kilburn works by fire, the company took over a former piano factory in East Finchley, north London.

A separate subsidiary to manufacture Simms-Vernier couplings (a method of adjusting the magneto's ignition timing) was set up in Lyons, France.

During the 1930s the factory developed in conjunction with Leyland Motors a range of diesel fuel injectors, in particular the Uniflow injection pump of 1937.

In World War II the company again became the principal supplier of magnetos for aircraft and tanks, also supplying dynamos, starter motors, lights, pumps, nozzles, spark plugs and coils.

[3] The East Finchley factory continued to expand after the war, eventually reaching 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2), and the company took over many other firms.

In 1900 he set up Simms Manufacturing Company Ltd in Bermondsey and moved the business in 1902 to Welbeck Works in Kimberley Road, Kilburn.