Son of William Simpson, of 235 Cleveland Road, Sunderland.
Linda Gowans has submitted the following:-
The 1901 census for 55 Robinson Street shows William Simpson, Joiner, his wife Elizabeth Ann, and eight children of whom Joseph, born 1899, is the second youngest. All were born in Sunderland. In 1911 they are at 235 Cleveland Road, with Joseph still at school: we learn that the couple had already lost three of their ten children. Elizabeth Ann died in the September quarter of 1914, aged 54. The form listing the relatives of a deceased soldier, signed by Joseph’s father William and by B. Lasbrey, Clerk in Holy Orders, St Gabriel’s, Sunderland, on 3rd November 1919, shows he had three brothers and three sisters living, all older than him. One of the married sisters was Lily Newton, at 104 Queen’s Crescent.
Probably in 1916, Joseph joined The Wear Winch & Reel Co. as a clerk, and when he enlisted a year later received a glowing reference from his employer, duly noted by the Sunderland Sub-Area Recruiting Office at Hutchinson’s Buildings, High Street. It ends poignantly, ‘He leaves us for duties under the colours, and we wish him success in his new venture.’
The 15th and 17th Battalions of the West Yorkshire Regiment amalgamated in December 1915, and it is possible that Joseph joined them in the second half of 1917. During 1918 they were involved in numerous actions on the Western Front including the Battles of St Quentin, Bapaume and Arras. We know only that Joseph was taken to hospital after being gassed, but without the precise date the specific action cannot be ascertained. The hospital was the 83rd (Dublin) General Hospital, Boulogne, staffed by medical personnel from Dublin hospitals who volunteered their services.
Joseph died there on August 12th, 1918, and the following day a telegraph message from the hospital to that effect was received at York.
Terlincthun British Cemetery, at Wimille on the northern outskirts of Boulogne, was begun in June 1918 and used largely for burials from the many hospitals in the area. Other graves were brought in after the Armistice, and it now contains 4,378 Commonwealth burials of the First World War.
Joseph Simpson is remembered at Sunderland on S140.009, S140.010 and S140.048 part 4