Simpson, Norman Douglas (1890-1974)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0068 SIM
Held at	: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kew.org/learn/library-art-archives ›
Full title	: Simpson, Norman Douglas (1890-1974)
Date(s)	: 1910-1974
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 5 series, 16 files and 7 boxes of index cards
Name of creator(s)	: Simpson | Norman Douglas | 1890-1974 | botanist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Norman Douglas Simpson was born in Carlton Miniott, near Thirsk in the North Riding of Yorkshire on the 23rd September 1890, the son of a vicar, Reverend James Douglas Simpson (d. 1936) and Elizabeth Saunders of Airy Hill, Whitby, Yorkshire, who was the daughter of a wealthy landowner, Charles Saunders. Simpson was encouraged by his father who had an interest in botany and began to form his Herbarium of British plants in 1903, aged 12. He attended Aysgarth School in Yorkshire and became friends with the Foggitt family who were also keen botanists and it was William Foggitt (c.1835-1917) and others who founded the Botanical Exchange Club which later became the Botanical Society of the British Isles of which Simpson became a life-long member.

In 1904, Simpson attended Clifton College, Bristol and in 1908 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge (his father’s college) and read Botany and Zoology graduating BA with a third in Natural Sciences Tripos in 1911. By this time Simpson had a Herbarium of over 1,400 species and varieties and he had become an expert Microscopist and was made Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society in 1912. He remained a member until his death. He was keen to take a position at Kew Herbarium but they had no post to offer him. However, Assistant Director A W Hill suggested he might undertake the identification of specimens collected the previous year in North-Western Mongolia and Chinese Dzungaria by Morgan Philips Price (c.1885-1973). In November 1911 Morgan agreed to pay Simpson 30/- a week for six months to identify and list his plants with a view to publication. Simpson worked on this with the help of Otto Stapf (c.1857-1933) until 1912 and it also led him into studying the genus Astragalus. Simpson’s resulting enumeration was submitted to the Linnean Society by Stapf and was published in October 1913 and included new species.

He returned to college and gained a Cambridge Diploma in Agricultural Studies in 1914. Simpson was a keen mechanic, motorcyclist and motorist and in 1915 he joined the Red Cross as a motorcyclist and was sent to the Hospital at Poperinghe in Belgium. In November 1915 he enlisted in the Army Transport Corps and rose through the ranks being promoted to Captain and served until 1920 when he was discharged.

After the war, Simpson went to live with his father at ‘Maesbury’ in Bournemouth, who had retired in 1916 and moved to Bournemouth from Yorkshire as he had family there and after his father’s death Simpson lived at ‘Maesbury’ until his death. Simpson would have liked a post at Kew but there were none available. In February 1921, he joined the staff at the Cotton Research Board’s Station at El Giza, Egypt where he became an Economic Botanist. In the November of 1921, he started the Botanical Section’s Herbarium and when he left Egypt in 1930 it had grown to 8,450 specimens and many were duplicated in his own Herbarium. His Cotton (Gossypium) collection was presented to Sir George Watt (c.1851-1930) which is now at Edinburgh and another set was presented to Kew. In 1926, Simpson moved to the Irrigation Services, Ministry of Public Works, Egypt and was partly employed in the Sudan where he became knowledgeable in water plants. His contract expired in 1930 and was not renewed and he returned to England via travelling through Europe. In September 1930, the Colonial Office offered him a job as Systematic Botanist in the Agricultural Department at the Peradeniya Botanic Garden, Ceylon on a wage of £720 per annum and a pension. He bought his beloved car, the Alvis 12/50 for £395 which he took to Ceylon and was still driving this car until his death in 1973. The position ended abruptly in 1932 as they abolished his post and he returned to England in September 1932 via the Far East, Japan and the United States of America.

Simpson then settled at ‘Maesbury’ and as his family were wealthy, he never sought paid work again. He spent his time collecting, indexing and arranging his Herbarium. He travelling much in order to collect specimens and map the flora of various countries, such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia (Simpson had a knowledge of Arabic), Ireland (where he botanised Ireland with various others) and Jordan – all in his Alvis car which had a plant press in the boot. Simpson added many new species to his Herbarium. He also spent much of his retirement collecting books and assembled a large and comprehensive botanical library. He also collected works by Richard Burton, John Buchan, T E Lawrence and books relating to North Africa and the Near East which sold at auction after his death for £13,077. Simpson published little himself, but in 1960, he published at his own cost of £2,000 ‘A Bibliographical Index of the British Flora’ which started to be compiled in 1941. This provided an invaluable compilation of classified referencing to books and articles in periodicals relating to the flora of the British Isles.

Simpson died on the 29th August 1974 just short of his 84th birthday from a heart condition. On his death his Herbarium included 5,800 sheets from Egypt, 1,580 from the Sudan, 400 from Jordan, 600 from Morocco, 800 from Algeria, 500 from Tunisia, 600 from Cirenaica, 18,100 of British and Irish plants and 1,300 of Continental European plants which he collected from 1903-1973. The Sudan, Egypt and Jordan collections were deposited to The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the rest to the Natural History Museum. His main collections of botanical books were presented to the Botany School at Cambridge, The Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Reading University.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Norman Douglas Simpson, 1910-1974, comprising correspondence and papers regarding various topics including botany and plants, the Index ‘A Bibliographical Index of the British Flora’, expeditions and field trips, Simpson’s library and his dealings with publishers, book sellers, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The British Museum (Natural History), societies such as the Botanical Society of the British Isles (B.S.B.I.). There are also invoices and orders for the Bibliographical Index, eleven notebooks which mostly relate to his time at Kew working on identifying specimens from the North-Western Mongolia and Chinese Dzungaria expedition, Astragalus and his time in Egypt and Sudan 1912-1929 and seven boxes of index cards which relate to his plant collecting trips abroad. There are also plant lists, book lists, drawings and some maps. These papers document many of N D Simpson’s activities throughout his life.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English, French, Czechoslovakian and Latin.

System of arrangement:

The original order of the fonds has been maintained and arranged into five series reflecting the form of the records.
SIM/1 Correspondence and Papers 1910 - 1974
SIM/2 Correspondence 1932 - 1974
SIM/3 Notebooks 1912 - 1929
SIM/4 Letters, Papers and Invoices 1865 - 1974
SIM/5 Indexes [1921 – 1952]

Conditions governing access:

This collection is subject to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew's standard access and reproduction conditions. Access is unrestricted and by appointment but will be subject to the conditions of the Data Protection Act. Reproduction information is available on request.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

Series Two (SIM/2) Correspondence has an index at the beginning of each file.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated by Patrick Brenan and William Stern [William Stearn], the executors of N D Simpson’s Will in 1974 together with part of his Herbarium.

Allied Materials

Related material:

There are also thirteen ‘Plant Collecting Notebooks – Egypt’ (1922-1930); acquisition number PrP 03-005. The library at Kew also holds ‘Sudan’, N D Simpson (92/SUD./8). Following his death Simpson’s executors deposited the Sudan, Egypt and Jordan Herbarium collections to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the rest to the Natural History Museum. Simpson’s executors also deposited his main collections of botanical books from his library to Kew and rest to the Botany School at Cambridge, The Natural History Museum and Reading University. The Archives of the Natural History Museum has notes, correspondence and drawings (L MSS SIM).

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Catalogued by Lianne Neal, April 2007. Transcribed by Sarah Drewery, March 2011. Sources: Relevant biographical material gathered from Desmond, R., Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists, Taylor and Francis and The Natural History Museum, 1994, p. 629 and Watsonia, Journal, Vol. 10., p .403-410.

Rules or conventions:
General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
March 2011