He was the eldest son of John Simpson of Knaresborough (the third in succession to practise medicine) and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ward of Dore House, near Handsworth.

After visiting Algeria and the eastern Atlas with Henry Baker Tristram and Osbert Salvin, he spent more than a year in Greece and Turkey adding to his collections.

[1] Settling in London, although he lived part of the year on property at West Holme,[2] Dorset, and at Knaresborough, he began his career as a geologist.

[4] Other papers on the Jurassic system appeared in the Geological Magazine, and in 1887 he began to publish in the Palæontographical Society's volumes a monograph on the inferior oolite gastropods,[5] which, when completed in 1896, comprised 514 pages of letterpress and 44 plates in 9 parts.

In 1886 and the following year he undertook some dredging in the English Channel for mollusca, and aided the foundation of a marine laboratory at Cullercoats, Northumberland.

He received, with the other three original members, a gold medal at the Fiftieth Anniversary 'Jubilee Meeting of the British Ornithologists' Union' in December 1908.

[10][11] He is buried at St Andrew's Church on Ham Common; his headstone records that he was "An eminent scientist whose work and research did much towards the advancement of geology".