Site Home
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Great War Home
Search
Add Stories & Photos
Library
Help & FAQs
Features
Allied Army
Day by Day
RFC & RAF
Prisoners of War
War at Sea
Training for War
The Battles
Those Who Served
Hospitals
Civilian Service
Women at War
The War Effort
Central Powers Army
Central Powers Navy
Imperial Air Service
Library
World War Two
Submissions
Add Stories & Photos
Time Capsule
Information
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Our Facebook Page
Volunteering
News
Events
Contact us
Great War Books
About
222703Lt. William John Sydney Simpson MC
British Army 8th Btn. Middlesex Regiment
from:Ealing
Lt W J S Simpson
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.
Officers 4/8th Btn Middlesex Regt.
WilliamJSSimpson with QVRs at Crowboughrough
WilliamJSSimpson and QVRs at Crowborough, work party
Interallied Police at Rybrick
Interallied Police at Rybrick
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.