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In memory of:

Assistant Purser James Simpson

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Merchant Navy emblem

Military service

Age: 31
Rank: Assistant Purser
Force: Merchant Navy
Unit/Regiment: Canadian Merchant Navy
Division: RMS Hesperian (Glasgow, Scotland) (124266)
Birth: July 7, 1884 Liverpool, England
Death: September 4, 1915 North Atlantic

Burial/memorial information

TOWER HILL MEMORIAL
Additional information
Son of Thomas Simpson and Sarah Priest of 8 Highfield Road, Walton, Liverpool, England. Brother of Corporal Percy Thomas Simpson, Regimental Number 22840, Kings (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Battalion, British Army, who was killed in action in France on 1 August 1917 in the First World War, and Private Reginald Charles Simpson, Regimental Number 66852, British Royal Garrison Artillery. He survived combat in France and Belgium during the same conflict.

On 4 September 1915, the Hesperian was en route from Liverpool, England, to Montreal, Quebec, when it was torpedoed at 8:30 a.m. by the U-20 off the coast of Ireland, 85 miles (137 km) southwest of Fastnet Rock, southeast of Ireland in the North Atlantic. The attack resulted in the death of 32 people, as the ship was carrying 653 passengers. Remaining afloat, she was towed 35 miles (56 km) before sinking 130 miles (209 km) off Queenstown, England, on 6 September. This U-20 will sink the Lusitania.

Related media

First World War (1914 – 1918)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 65 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance.
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