Education
He later attended the United States Naval Academy.
He later attended the United States Naval Academy.
Born in London, England, in 1859, Simpson immigrated to the United States and joined the Navy from New New York By October 31, 1877, he was serving as a first class fireman on the United States Ship Essex, which was at Monrovia, Liberia. On that day, he and another sailor, Ordinary Seaman John Millmore, rescued their shipmate Ordinary Seaman John West. Powers from drowning.
Simpson"s award was posthumous.
Simpson was accepted into the United States Naval Academy as an engineering student (then known as cadet-engineers). He was admitted to the class of 1882, but resigned his appointment on February 28, 1881, before graduating.
On April 3, 1881 at age 21 Simpson died of consumptionon board the City of Savannah (a steamer ship) and was buried at the Delaware County Society of the New Jerusalem Church Burial Ground in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.
In the 1970s all remains were removed and reinterred in a mass grave at Mountain Zion Cemetery in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.