MB ChB Edin 1956; DPM Lond 1967; MRCPsych 1973.
Simpson was born in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, on 19 August 1931, the son of William Anderson Simpson, a general practitioner. He was educated at Trinity College Glenalmond and Edinburgh University. He was psychiatric registrar at St Bernard's Hospital Southall and senior registrar in child psychiatry at Wessex Unit for Children and Parents, Portsmouth, before being appointed consultant child psychiatrist to Rochdale District Health Authority. Simpson was later medical director of Child and Adolescent Services for Barnsley District Health Authority. He was a member of Manchester Medical Society and of the Association of Child Psychologists and Psychiatrists.