| Ernest Aldrich Simpson | |
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Ernest Simpson in 1937 |
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| Born | 6 May 1897 New York City, New York |
| Died | 30 November 1958 (aged 63) London, England |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Spouse | Dorothea Parsons Dechert (1923–1928) Bessie Wallis Warfield (m.1928–1937) Mary Kirk Raffray (1937–1941) Avril Leveson-Gower (1948–1958) |
| Children | Audrey Simpson Ernest Henry Child Simpson (aka Aharon Solomons) |
| Parents | Ernest Louis Simpson Charlotte Woodward Gaines |
Ernest Aldrich Simpson (6 May 1897 – 30 November 1958) was a British shipping executive best known as the second husband of Wallis Simpson, who later would marry the former Edward VIII of the United Kingdom.[1] He was a partner with the shipbrokerage firm Simpson, Spence & Young.
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Born in New York City, New York, and educated at The Hill School and Harvard, Simpson was briefly a captain in the Coldstream Guards during World War I. His father, Ernest Louis Simpson, a cofounder of the international shipbroker Simpson, Spence & Young in 1880, was a British citizen whose original surname was Solomon.[2] His mother, Charlotte Woodward Gaines, was American, daughter of Royal Aldrich Gaines, a New York lawyer, and his wife, the former Laura Walker. He had an elder sister, Maud (1879-1962; married Peter Kerr-Smiley, MP, in 1905).
Simpson renounced his United States citizenship shortly after leaving Harvard and became a naturalized British citizen.
"In his younger years he was described as tall, with blue eyes, blond, curly hair, a neat blond moustache and a fastidious dresser," according to an article in The New York Times.
His first wife, whom he married in New York City, New York, on 22 February 1923 (divorced 1928) was Dorothea Parsons Dechert (died 1967). She was the former wife of James Flanagan Dechert (died 1968), whom she married in May 1916 and divorced in April 1920. Born Dorothea Webb Parsons, she was a daughter of Arthur Webb Parsons, a lawyer, and his wife, the former Frances Margaret Graves. The bride was a great-granddaughter of Theophilus Parsons, a Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and a president of Harvard University.
Dorothea and Ernest Simpson had one child, Audrey C. C. Simpson (born 1924), who married, firstly, American journalist Murray J. Rossant (married 5 October 1945), and, secondly (on 1 April 1949), New York advertising executive Edmund Hope Driggs 3d.[3][4] Audrey Simpson Driggs, as she is now known, is an artist and currently lives in Canada. Simpson also had a stepdaughter by this marriage, Cynthia Josephine Dechert (born 1916), who wed Robert Harold Baker (married 1937, annulled 1938) and James Imbrie Jr. (married 1950).
Simpson's second wife was Wallis Warfield Spencer (1896–1986), the Baltimore-born former wife of Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr. and only child of Teackle Wallis Warfield and his wife, the former Alice Montague. They were married in London, England, on 21 July 1928, and divorced on 3 May 1937. As his obituary in The New York Times noted, the publicity over his second wife's remarriage to the Duke of Windsor and her subsequent fame thrust him into the role of "the forgotten man." The two remained friends, however, the newspaper noted, with the now Duchess of Windsor sending him flowers when he was in hospital for surgery and Simpson offering advice and clarification when his former wife was working on her memoirs.
His third wife was Mary Huntemuller Kirk (1896–1941), the former wife of Jacques Achille Louis Raffray, a French-born New York insurance broker, and a daughter of Henry Child Kirk, owner and manager of the Kirk Silversmith Co. of Baltimore, Maryland, and his wife, the former Edith Huntemuller.[5]
A girlhood friend of Wallis Warfield, Mary Kirk was a bridesmaid at Warfield's first wedding and introduced her to Ernest Simpson in 1925; she also was the other woman with whom Simpson took a hotel suite in Berkshire in order to give his wife, Wallis, evidence of adultery to so she could bring divorce proceedings against him. Ernest Simpson and Mary Raffray were married in the Diamond Jubilee ballroom of the Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Connecticut, on November 19, 1937, six months after the groom's divorce from Wallis Simpson and three weeks after the bride's divorce from Raffray (whom she had married 29 July 1918).[6]
Mary and Ernest Simpson had one child, Ernest Henry Child Simpson, who was born prematurely on September 27, 1939, and christened at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, London. In June 1940, the Simpsons sent their infant son to the United States to escape the war. However, a month before Mary's death he returned with her to England. Mary Simpson died of breast cancer on October 2, 1941, at the couple's home in Wiltshire, England. Their son changed his name legally after 1958 to Aharon Solomons and became a soldier in the Israeli army.[1][7] Aharon Solomons is an A.I.D.A Master instructor and currently teaches in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Simpson's fourth wife was Avril Joy Mullens (1910 – 28 November 1978), the former wife of Brigadier General Hugh Nugent Leveson-Gower, RA, a former wife of H.S.H. Prince George G. Imeretinsky, and the younger daughter of Sir John Ashley Mullens, of Manor House, Haslemere, Surrey, by his wife, Evelyne Maude Adamson. Simpson and Avril Leveson-Gower were married in London, England, on 12 August 1948. By this marriage he had one stepdaughter, Lucinda Gaye Leveson-Gower (born 1935, married Sir Spencer Le Marchant in 1955). Avril Simpson was killed in a car crash in Mexico.
Ernest Aldrich Simpson died in London, England, of throat cancer.
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