Joseph Simpson

Sir Joseph Simpson KBE KPFSM (26 June 1909 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Joe Simpson to his officers, was Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the head of the London Metropolitan Police, from 1958 to 1968. He was the first Commissioner who began his police career as an ordinary constable. Early life, education and sporting career Simpson was born in Dawley in Shropshire, the son of Joseph Simpson, an engineer who became chairman of The Horsehay Company, an offshoot of the ironmaster Abraham Darby's empire at nearby Horsehay. The Company built cast iron bridges, railtrack and other products distributed throughout the colonies and Americas, and after amalgamation with an American company, Adamson Alliance, concentrated later production on mechanised raw material handling equipment for the maritime and steel industries. Simpson's mother, Dorothea was the daughter of Arthur Maw, of Maw & Co, manufacturers of encaustic tiles at Coalbrookdale. Simpson was educated at Ashdown House and Oundle School, where he was captain of rugby football and athletics and was Public Schools Champion in long jump in 1927 and 1928, when he set a public school record, and also in 440 yards in 1928. He then went on to Manchester University College of Technology. He represented the university at rugby and athletics and was World University Champion in the 400 metres hurdles at the 1930 International University Games, beating the German record-holder at Darmstadt. He also played cricket and was a good rifle shot (as Commissioner he was a great supporter of sport in the police). Due to the family's financial difficulties following the Great Depression, his opportunities for a career in his family's businesses disappeared, whether the iron industries of Coalbrookdale, or the cotton industries of Manchester (his relatives were partners in the prosperous firm of Simpson and Godlee which ran mills in Swinton employing at one time some 1,500 men women and children. In 1903 Francis Godlee had donated an entire observatory (still intact) to the city).