Born: 
14/07/1920
Died: 
15/05/2006
Specialty: 
Medical Physics and Bio-Engineering
Designatory Letters: 
BSc Edin 1949, PhD Edin 1952, FRSE 1967, Fellowship 1997

David Simpson was born in Edinburgh and educated at the Edinburgh Academy from 1927 until 1938. In the summer of 1938 he spent a holiday in Germany and was so horrified by what the Nazis were doing that he joined the Territorial Army on his return home. He worked briefly learning accountancy but was called for service in the Army in 1939. From then until 1945 he served as a fighting soldier in the Highland Light Infantry. During that time he was commissioned and acted as the battalion intelligence officer. In 1945 when the war was almost over he was serving in the low countries and was severely wounded, the wound badly damaging his right brachial plexus. For a time he heard only the gloomiest of prognoses about ever again having a functioning arm. Finally he was sent back to Edinburgh where Professor JR Learmonth was a world authority on peripheral plexus and restored considerable function to his right arm although he had some pain for the rest of his life.

Professor Learmonth suggested that he should qualify in Physics and this he did at Edinburgh University thereafter working as a Medical Physicist. The combination of theoretical knowledge and particular success with designing gas-powered limbs for children damaged by Thalidomide. Another success was the Simpson bed for patients in danger of developing pressure sores, which was basically simple but extremely effective and used by geriatricians.

In 1976 he applied for the post of executive dean in the Faculty of Medicine in Edinburgh University. His application was successful and again this post suited him extremely well. He retired in 1980.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royals Society of Edinburgh in 1967. In 1970 he was awarded the prestigious SG Brown Medal of the Royal Society. He also received honours from foreign academies.

He was greatly interested in the history of the City of Edinburgh and became an acknowledged authority. For a number of years he was President of the Old Edinburgh Club. In 1972 he published Edinburgh Displayed which was a collection of plans and views of the city done from original cuts by the author.

Late in life he felt an urge to write poetry and in 2001 published a Volume entitled Interesting Times. This gave a vivid but unsentimental picture of his life as a soldier in Western Europe near the end of the Second World War. Later in 2005 he published an expanded version entitled A Private Wold.

After retirement he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and enjoyed meeting many old friends at the lunches held by the Senior Fellows Club.

His was a life which he certainly lived to the full and much of it to the benefit of other people. His wife died in 1996 but he is survived by three children and eight grandchildren.