Joseph F. Simpson
Joseph Fitzallan Simpson (1869 - 1951)
1951 Obituary
Joseph Fitzallan Simpson, who died on the 1st January, 1951, at a St. Anne's nursing home, was born in Manchester on the 16th August, 1869. He received his early education at a private school at Whitby, his engineering education at the Manchester School of Technology, and his practical training as an apprentice with the Manchester Edison and Swan Co. For some years he was associated with his brother in the firm of Simpson Bros, at Hapton, near Burnley, in the manufacture of gramophones and low-voltage magnetos for use in cotton machinery. In 1888, soon after the firm was founded, he installed 50-c.p. lamps in the streets of Hapton. With reference to this installation, a cutting from the Preston Guardian (21st September, 1888) contains the following observation: "We are inclined to believe that this [Hapton] is the first village in England upon which this distinction has been conferred." At the same time he installed a "20-light Edison dynamo" in his father's cotton mill. Later he became a partner in a Wigan firm which specialized in overhead-line equipment for tramways; he also acted as electrical consultant to the Tower and Winter Gardens at Blackpool. In 1904 he was appointed Assistant Tramways Manager at Preston, but almost immediately was promoted to Manager, owing to the ill health of his chief. The trams were then horse-drawn, but in June, 1905, he had the honour of driving the first electric tram in Preston. In 1922, when the Corporation took over the electricity supply undertaking, he relinquished the post and became Borough Electrical Engineer. Under his direction the Ribble power station was planned and built, and the area of supply was considerably extended. When he retired in 1934 the number of consumers had increased from 3,000 to 28,000, and the price of electricity had fallen from 4.144d. to 0.693d. a kilowatt-hour.
He was a striking figure, being well over six feet in height, though rather slightly built. He had a keen sense of humour, was always the friend of the "little man," and was greatly admired by the staff and workpeople alike; the industry has suffered a great loss in his passing.
Mr. Simpson, who has recently been described as one of the rapidly disappearing little band of pioneers, was for many years President of the Preston Scientific Society, a founder Member of the Northern Society of Electrical Engineers, and became a Member of The Institution in 1900, when the Society became the Manchester Local Section of The Institution.