Framlinghamian 2022 - Flipbook - Page 175
OBITUARIES
During the war he served ashore and at sea, in Scotland, in the
Northern Approaches and at Lee-on-Solent, Portsmouth. After
the war, in 1946, while serving as Supply Officer Lieutenant
in HMS AJAX, the ship returned to Montevideo in Uruguay,
the scene of her earlier involvement in the Battle of the River
Plate in 1939. This voyage was undertaken to repatriate
German Naval prisoners-of-war who had been incarcerated
in neutral Uruguay throughout the War following the scuttling
of the German battle cruiser, Admiral Graf Spee. John often
recalled the extraordinarily warm Civic Welcome that the ship’s
company received from the Deputy President of Uruguay in a
formal ceremony, just before HMS AJAX’s return voyage to
Kiel in the Baltic.
Following a Staff Course in the UK, John was based in Malta
from 1948-50, returning to a further shore training post in
Wetherby before being appointed Secretary to Rear Admiral
John Cuthbert, who was Deputy Controller of the Navy at the
time, and under whose command John had served in HMS
AJAX. John was paid a considerable compliment (in Service
terms) by Rear Admiral Cuthbert, who requested that John
should continue as his Secretary for the Admiral’s next three
appointments, the final one being Flag Officer, Scotland and
Northern Ireland, from 1956-58, after which Vice Admiral Sir
John Cuthbert retired.
John saluting the Admiral in Rosyth in 1957
The picture is of John saluting the Admiral in Rosyth in 1957.
In that same year, the family moved back to Suffolk and John
returned to sea as Supply Officer in the light cruiser HMS
BERMUDA, once again in the Mediterranean, before taking
up his final Service appointment in 1960 as a Staff Training
Officer at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
After retiring from the Royal Navy in 1962, John was employed
by the Grocers’ Institute in Holborn as Training Development
Officer. Drawing on his extensive experience as a Supply
Officer, his role coincided with the emergence of supermarkets
in Britain and he travelled extensively throughout the country,
lecturing and training. Moving to Cheltenham in 1977, he
set up John Simpson Associates, a consultancy dealing with
recruitment and selection, management and manpower
forecasting and planning.
When he finally retired, he and his belovèd wife Barrie moved
to Wiltshire, and from there to Comberton, near Cambridge,
in 1985. Following Barrie’s death in 1994, John returned
to Framlingham to live with his younger daughter, Helen, in
Pembroke Road. In 2002, he went back to Cambridge to
live with his elder daughter, Lydia Smallwood, but returned to
Framlingham in 2006, following Lydia’s untimely death. He set
up home in one of the Mills Almshouses and remained there
contentedly until he moved to Allonsfield House in September
2019.
John’s was a long and active life. Despite his increasing
deafness and memory loss, he remained a welcoming host
who was full of stories, memories, and limericks which he was
always ready to share. He was a particularly distinguished
member of a distinguished Suffolk family, and willingly gave of
his talents to the school that had nurtured him.
Appendix
The following paragraph is not part of John’s Obituary, but its
points of reference give some idea of his deep knowledge of,
and commitment to, the College. It also shows how embedded
he was in College history. The piece (now abridged and edited)
was originally written as an introduction to the Prizes section, in
the Distinguished Section on our OF website. The loss of John
makes it all the more poignant.
Framlingham Prizes Speech-day at Framlingham has,
for me, always released a flood of memories of people
I have known and liked and admired. The AustinSparkes prize is usually the trigger. I remember him
well. R H P Browne was another near contemporary:
we played in the same scrum and both went into the
Navy. I last met him not long before he was lost at sea
in HMS HOOD. Martin Bulstrode was a friend for many
years. I once bought a bantam cock from Percy Clarke.
Before it was incorporated in the Speech-day list, the Ellis
Arthur prize was presented at the OF Suffolk supper and
it fell to me to present the first award. My father was one
of Inskip’s pupils and talked of him a lot. I knew General
Inskip and Alfred Pretty. W E Winstanley was my
housemaster and a lasting influence in my life. The
memory of his last insult still rings in the ears: it was at
my daughter’s wedding and he was admiring a portrait
painted by my sister-in-law; “It is remarkable”, he said,
“that a portrait can be so distinguished and still look like
you”.
For me, therefore, these prizes commemorate people: for
most prize-winners, they commemorate only the names
of people. Although the aim was to produce biographies
of individuals, the result is almost a potted history of
the College itself. The names of all, I believe, should be
recorded before there is nobody left who remembers.
COMMANDER J R SIMPSON (K32-36)
THE FRAMLINGHAMIAN 2019/2020
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