26th March 2025

Remembering Jim Simpson

We recently learned of the death of Jim Simpson.

Jim started at St Mary’s in 1953 and quickly impressed his contemporaries with both his intellect and his cordial nature.

Phil Wells, who started with Jim, recalls: “Jim was in my class at St Mary’s. In our first year, he was the U12s left-back but did not feature after that. He was very bright, way ahead of most, but he was always cheerful and engaging.”

Perhaps Jim’s most memorable moment was when English and Drama master Adrian Jarvis handed him the lead role in the 1959 production of Cyrano De Bergerac.

Jim’s performance on that old stage in the main hall certainly impressed the Kentish Times reviewer who wrote at the time:

“The producer was well served by his principals. Outstanding, of course, was Cyrano, admirably played by James Simpson. His was a clever piece of characterisation and a remarkable feat of memory. I did not detect a single slip in the cascade of words which flowed from his lips; in deportment and swordsmanship he was convincing. Altogether a very creditable performance.”

Prior to this Jim had played one of the seven deadly sins (Covetousness) in the 1957 production of Dr Faustus and then The Earl of Northumberland in 1958’s Richard III.

For The Alchemist in 1960 (the year Jim would have left St Mary’s so possibly focusing more on his studies than his acting) he is listed as one of the assistant stage managers and carpenters alongside Mike Moore, Bernard Gates, Lou, John White and John Parker.

After St Mary’s Jim attended the University of Southampton, where he graduated with a bachelor of science and later a PhD in inorganic chemistry in 1967.

In 1969 he left the UK and travelled to New Zealand, Dunedin specifically, to work at The University of Otago.

He had a particular passion for X-ray crystallography – a branch of science that deals with discerning the arrangement and bonding of atoms in crystalline solids.

He wrote, or co-authored, more than 550 papers.

Jim worked for the University of Otago for more than 50 years and became head of both the chemistry and botany departments. He was well known for putting in many, many hours of work.

For his outstanding contributions to his fields of academia, Jim was made an emeritis professor by the university.