George Simpson died at the age of 46 in 1934, after receiving burns during an explosion at Klondyke Mine, North Ipswich. His obituary claimed he had captained the Queensland football team against New South Wales before enlisting with the Black Watch as part of the British Army. It further stated he fought in France where he was awarded the Military Medal, and finally returned to Australia in 1922.
This obituary was published in several newspapers at the time of his death, but its football claims were contradicted by contemporary reports of the 1913 and 1914 series between Queensland and New South Wales. Simpson did tour New South Wales with the Queensland team after being called up as a reserve player. At the time he was playing for St Stephens in the Ipswich and West Moreton competition. In an era before substitutes, Simpson did not take the field for Queensland’s two official inter-state matches against NSW, however he did play the tour match against Combined Hospitals at Gladesville.
Simpson finally earned a Queensland cap in the closing game of New South Wales’ visit in 1914 by which time he was playing for Booval Stars. He was initially selected for the Ipswich and West Moreton team which beat NSW 4-1 in the first game of the tour. This led to selection as reserve in the first inter-state test, won by Queensland 3-2. Simpson was promoted to the starting line-up in the second game at Sandy Gallop in Ipswich, as Queensland and NSW ground out a nil-all draw.
Simpson soon left for Britain and where he married Annie Peggie in Edinburgh in October 1915. Their marriage certificate listed Simpson’s occupation as “Lance Corporal, 11th Black Watch.” Otherwise details of his service are obscured, not least of all as most references mention two other George Simpsons who served with the Black Watch, though both died during the war.
The Simpsons returned to Australia by the time their daughter Ellen was born in 1923. Their first child James had been born in Scotland in 1919 and in all they had 6 children by the time of his death in 1934.