Robert John Shaw Simpson was awarded the degree Master of Arts (MA) by the University of Ediburgh in 1878. Switching to the study of medicine he next qualified as Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Master of Surgery (CM) at the same university in 1882. For some time he worked as an assistant at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmological Hospital, London. In 1883 he joined the British Army with the rank of surgeon-captain and from 1891 to 1896 held the post of assistant surgeon at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London. He became a member of the Ophthalmological Society of Great Britain and contributed a paper on "A case of abdominal aneurism" to the Army Medical Report in 1894. The next year he was promoted to surgeon-major and married Jean M. Halley.

Simpson came to South Africa in 1896 in the Royal Army Medical Corps. In June 1896 he was in Cape Town, where he saw a brilliant double rainbow in the fog in front of Table Mountain, extending over the bay. He described it in "Rainbow at Cape Town, June 6th, 1896" in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (1896). Soon thereafter he moved to Pietermaritzburg, where he was associated with Station Hospital. By 1897 he was a member of the South African Medical Association and served on the council of its Pietermaritzburg branch. In 1898 his address was given as Fort Napier, Pietermaritzburg. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) he served as staff officer to the principal medical officer of the South African Field Forces and was awarded the Queen's medal (3 clasps) and King's medal (2 clasps). Years later he wrote "The medical history of the war in South Africa, an epidemiological essay", which was published in the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps and reprinted as a monograph (London, 1911, 236p).

In 1903 Simpson was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and from 1905 to 1909 held an appointment as professor of tropical medicine in the Royal Army Medical College. He was honoured as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1900 and as a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB, military) in 1917. Following his promotion to colonel in 1912 he retired the next year. However, in August 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, he was recalled to service as assistant director of medical services for the Woolwich district.

List of sources:
Natal almanac, directory and yearly register, 1898.

National Union Catalogue, pre-1956 imprints. London: Mansell, 1968-1980.

Robert John Shaw Simpson. Retrieved from https://www.angloboerwar.com/images/pdf/RAMCOfficers1883.pdf on 19 October 2020.

South African medical directory for 1897. Cape Town: Cape Times, 1897.

South African Medical Journal (Series 2), 1898, Vol. 5, pp. 240-242: South African Medical Association [list of members].

Venter, R.J. Bibliography of regional meteorological literature. Vol. 1. Southern Africa, 1486-1948. Pretoria: Weather Bureau, 1949.

Who was who, Vol. 3, 2nd ed. London: Adam & Black, 1967.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-12-05 12:22:05