People Australia

Neville Wynn Simpson, c 1915 photographer unknown

oai:awm.gov.au:P05413-074, Australian War Memorial

NEVILLE WYNN SIMPSON, son of Mr. Francis and Mrs. Annie Simpson, was born on 14th August, 1887, at Whangarei, New Zealand, and received his education at the Napier Main School and the Boys’ High School, Napier. He joined the Bank’s service on 18th April, 1904, at Napier, and was transferred to New Plymouth on 19th November, 1904; to Dannevirke on 6th September, 1906, where he was promoted to ledger-keeper on 1 st January, 1907; to New Plymouth, as teller, on 7th February, 1912; to Kyneton, Victoria, on 26th September, 1913, where he was appointed teller on 1 st January, 1914; thence to Head Office on 12th June, 1914.

Neville Wynn Simpson enlisted in Sydney as a private in February, 1915, and was allotted to the 17th Battalion, 5th Brigade, A.I.F. He left Australia with the forces in May, 1915, having been promoted to the rank of lance-corporal in the meantime. He arrived in Egypt in the following June where he remained until September, when he was sent to Gallipoli, and on 1st October, 1915, he gained the rank of corporal. Whilst on duty in the latter place he was invalided to England. Rejoining his unit in France in April, 1916, he took part in the Battle of Pozieres, and on 29th July, 1916, he was wounded by a shell in the abdomen and for several hours lay in a shell hole in No Man’s Land; peritonitis set in, and he died at the dressing station. Captain Nigel Smith, R.M.O., of the 17th Battalion, wrote that Neville Simpson was loved and respected by all his comrades.