Colleagues from across the party spectrum rose at a meeting of the Full Council to collectively remember a warm, welcoming and wise friend and calm, diligent and talented public servant who was committed to his family. Two of his daughters, Elizabeth and Virginia, were in the public gallery to hear council business pause to honour their father.
Cllr Simkins was born in London in 1946, grew up in Surrey, lived and worked in Bristol for a number of years and then settled in Kent in 1987.
He served as a magistrate and joined KCC as Conservative Member for the Ashford West division in 2013. The meeting heard he loved living in that part of the world.
His career was in investment management and the pensions industry and although there were few KCC committees he did not serve on, the deployment of his knowledge and expertise during his time as chairman of the Kent Pension Fund helped to shape and strengthen it and benefitted everyone involved in the work.
After he fell ill last summer, he expressed his frustrations that he was often then not able to attend meetings on the subject.
Leader of KCC Roger Gough said: “His wise advice, his warmth, his loyalty, and his selflessness; it really never was about him, and that is not something that is always said about people in politics. I don't think I am unusual in seeing those qualities in him, and I think that was the basis of the extraordinary affection in which he was held by officers and Members alike, and I think we saw that in the shock and the sadness when his death at the end of February was announced.
“When Charlie became ill, he continued to be insistent on making his contribution to this council.
“I think that we know that we were just one part of Charlie's rich and varied life. He told me, however, quite often in those last few months that his work here, even under those conditions, perhaps especially under those conditions, was important and good for him. What we should remember, along with that kind and warm personality, was that he was important and very good for us.”
Cllr Simkin enjoyed a 52-year marriage to Wendy. He was widowed in 2021 and is survived by his three daughters and seven grandchildren.
Matthew Balfour
Full Council also offered tributes to former KCC Member Matthew Balfour, who died just before Christmas.
Described as ‘formidably well-connected’, as having made an ‘enormous contribution’ and being a ‘wonderful person to work with’, more than one councillor also mentioned his intelligence, his dry and irreverent sense of humour and the fact he quietly supported a host of community groups, motivated by wanting to make things happen for the better.
First growing up on a West Malling farm and then succeeding in a career around membership of the Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Mr Balfour had significant expertise in property and land management and a love of rural Kent and nature which he brought to his public work as a popular, kind and attentive colleague.
He served 24 years at Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council and was at KCC for eight, representing Malling Rural East division and taking on one of the toughest Cabinet roles - highways.
He was passionate about serving on the governing body of Grange Park specialist school, a post he held for nearly 20 years, and chaired the Kent Nature Partnership ‘brilliantly’.
Items for discussion at the meeting on Thursday included the Kent Minerals and Waste Plan and Making Space for Nature initiative, both of which Matthew had his hand on from the early stages.
There was a minute’s silence for a moment of reflection for Cllr Simkins and Mr Balfour, and also John Spence OBE and Roy Bullock MBE, former KCC Members who have also recently passed away.
You can watch the tributes here (from the beginning of Chairman’s announcements at 02:52): County Council - Thursday 13 March 2025, 10:00am - Kent County Council Webcasting
