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Lt. William John Sydney Simpson MC
British Army 8th Btn. Middlesex Regiment
from:Ealing
Bill Simpson originally enlisted as Rifleman 580 in the the 9th London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles) Territorial Force on the 4th of January 1909. He was embodied on 5th of August 1914 and posted to France with the QVRs on the 14th of November 1914. He was appointed Lance Corporal and Acting Corporal on the 28th of December 1914. The QWVRs were engaged in the Battle of Hill 60 on 21st of April 1915 and Cpl Simpson returned to England on the 27th of April, presumably because he was injured.
He was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the the Middlesex Regiment and posted to the 4/8th Battalion on the 23rd of August 1915. He returned to France on the 5th of September 1915, joining the 8th Btn. At the Battle of Loos on 25th of Sept 1915 the 8th Middlesex were in support, holding trenches with machine guns and carrying tools and water. At the Battle of Ginchy on the Somme on 9th of Sept 1916 the 8th Middlesex made a Trench assault, where Lt W.J.S. Simpson was injured. At the the Battle of Flers-Courcelette 15th to 22nd Sept they were in a close assault at Bouleaux Wood. In the First Battle of the Scarpe and Vimy Ridge: 9th to 14th of April 1917 the 8th Middlesex made an assault over no-man’s land to take trenches on 9th and final capture of village of Neuville Vitasse with further bombing of trenches on 11th.
William was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of July 1917. During the Battle of Langemark between the 16th and 18th of August 1917 the 8th Middlesex made an assault under machine gun fire and counter attack including aerial attack.
At the battle of Cambai on 20th to 21st of Nov 1917 they mounted a decoy attack and during the capture of Bourlon Wood on 23rd to 28th of Nov they were in support with decoys. The German counter attacks took place from the 30th Nov to 3rd of Dec they were in defence of captured trenches in Hindenburg Line where Lt. W.J.S. Simpson was captured. He remained a POW for the rest of the war but was moved and interned in Switzerland on 2nd of October 1918. He was repatriated on 25th of December 1918.
He was attached to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps Woolwich Arsenal from January 1919 and he was seconded to the Foreign Office Inter-allied Police Service. He was Chief of the Inter-allied Police in Rybrick Upper Silesia in 1921 and was engaged in the uprisings. He returned to Civilian life in 1926 and was recalled to Service on 10th of July 1939 and was appointed Lieutenant in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, but was unfit for service overseas, he served in No 4 Training Battalion at Hillsea and Stirling until retiring in 1942. He died on the 3rd of November 1956.
