After leaving Sutton Valence School in 1974, Simon trained in hotel management at South Devon College.  During his time there he won the Charles Forte Award and used the funds made available to study the wines of France during one summer, developing a lifelong interest and becoming a sommelier in the process.

He went on to work in a number of hotels during what was to be his first career, among them Browns in London and Thatchers in East Horsley.  He later managed The Bishop’s Table in Farnham and The Sackville in Hove.

Whilst working in Hove, Simon had the call to ordained ministry and in 1995 made the move back to the South West to train at Bristol Baptist College.  He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1998 moving back to Sussex to start his first pastorate at Ceylon Place Baptist Church in Eastbourne, where he stayed until 2006.

Simon’s second pastorate at Taunton Baptist Church took him back to the west country, a part of England that he loved and adored.  This second pastorate ended in 2012, but he remained in the same area going to Lee Abbey in Devon as a chaplain until 2016, when he took early retirement from ministry.  

Simon and Lauren moved to Langford Budville in Somerset, but Simon still remained very much involved in Lee Abbey as a pastoral helper, a leader of walk and talk weeks and a trustee. He died very suddenly and unexpectedly at Lee Abbey on 8th September at the age of 63, doing what he loved in a place that he loved.  He leaves his wife Lauren, children Sarah, Rachael and Joe, and grandchildren Josie and Reuben.