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William Simpson — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Crimean War

After the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, he was given the task of creating an image of the Alma based on various accounts so that it could be lithographed by another London publisher, Lloyd's. He also put sketches sent from the Baltic onto stone for the firm of Colnaghi. In anticipation of the fall of Sevastopol, Lloyd's had him prepare an image of the fall of the town so that it could be published upon news of its actual capture. This presented a challenge to Simpson as he had little information about Sebastopol. He occasionally spoke with Mr. Day of Day and Son about the need to have sketches drawn at the front. Shortly thereafter, Colnaghi's contacted Simpson and invited him to go out to the Crimea and make sketches for the company.

Simpson arrived off the Crimean peninsula on 15 November 1854 and could hear distant firing. While he had missed the early battles, he was able to record the events before Sevastopol. He made numerous acquaintances who helped him with details for his pictures, but he was also struck by the plight of the common soldiers, "miserable looking beings...covered with mud, dirt, and rags," he wrote.

He socialised with many officers, including Lord Raglan and Captain Peel; he also met Roger Fenton who took his photograph.

In May 1855, Simpson accompanied Raglan on the expedition to Kertch which was captured on the 24th, but was back in time to observe the first Siege of Sevastopol in June. On the night of the 17th, he crawled out of a trench to view the attack. He wrote, "It was a wild orchestra of sound, never to be forgotten." He was still at the front when the city surrendered, and he quit the Crimea in the autumn of 1855.

Throughout his time at the front, he would send back his watercolours to London where the lithographers of Day & Son would transfer them to stone. Simpson was paid 20 pounds for each picture. For the colour, a separate stone was used for each tone. Colnaghis exhibited some of the watercolours including a show at the Graphic Society in February 1855. The first advertisements for the lithographs appeared in May 1855 and in the following month, a second series was announced.

In all, the Colnaghis produced two large portfolios containing over eighty lithographs entitled The Seat of the War in the East.

Two thousand copies of the complete set were produced. Simpson dedicated the series to Queen Victoria whose patronage he enjoyed for the rest of his life, and he was a frequent visitor to Windsor Castle and Balmoral.

So popular were his pictures that he became affectionately known at 'Crimean Simpson'.

There was a plan for the watercolours to be purchased for the nation but this came to nothing and they were sold off by the Colnaghi's.

India

In 1857, he was sent to India to sketch scenes relating to the recent Sepoy Revolt, which is also described as the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The idea was to produce an illustrated publication similar to the Crimean portfolio, and Simpson had discussed the possibility with Mr. Day. The artist arrived at Calcutta on 29 October 1859, and travelled in Punjab, Sutlej, Bengal, Lucknow and Cawnpore, central India, the Himalayas, Kashmir and Madras. In the summer of 1860, during these travels, Simpson visited Chini in the Sutlej Valley to avoid the monsoon rains, spending two months documenting local religious traditions and ceremonies. He later published these observations in Good Words and expanded upon them for the Royal Asiatic Society. In February, 1862, he left Bombay and arrived in London only to find that Day and Son could not afford to produce a portfolio. Nevertheless, a large volume of coloured lithographs was published under the title India Ancient and Modern. He was commissioned by Day & Son to visit these parts of India and record the places affected by the momentous events of the 'Mutiny' of 1857. Before leaving, he spent 'a considerable time in the library of India House, then in Leadenhall Street, looking over books about India, such as Daniels', to see what had been already done, and to get hints as to places I ought to visit'. The set of lithographs produced, based on his watercolours, was intended to rival David Roberts' The Holy Land in scope. However, the project never came to fruition, following the financial collapse of Day & Son, due to the rise of wood engraving. By 1866, Simpson had delivered 250 watercolours to Day & Son and these were subsequently sold off as bankrupt stock. Only 50 had been prepared as chromolithographs, and were published in 1867 as India Ancient and Modern. A series of illustrations of the country and people of India and adjacent territories. For Simpson this was little consolation: 'So the great work on India, on which I had bestowed so much time and labour, never came into existence...'.

Afghan War

On 15 October 1878, Simpson left London en route to Afghanistan to provide illustrations of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Travelling via Lahore and Peshawar, he passed through the Khyber Pass and witnessed the 'first shot' fired at the Battle of Ali Masjid.

He became friendly with Sir Louis Cavagnari who encouraged Simpson with his explorations of ancient Buddhist stupas in and around the Jalalabad Valley. While the Peshawar Valley Field Force was encamped at Jalalabad and later Gandamak, Simpson was allowed to have some soldiers to help him excavate Ahin Posh Tope and several other sites. As he excavated the Ahin Posh stupa in February 1879, he cleared the base of the stupa and dug a tunnel to the centre, where he discovered important relics and deposits, now in the British Museum. He also made drawing reconstitutions based on his findings. On one occasion, he was shot at by an Afghan but the bullet just missed.

At Gandamak, he met the photographer John Burke and his counterpart at The Graphic, Frederic Villiers, and after the departure of Archibald Forbes, Simpson took over the task of supplying the Daily News with accounts of the campaign.

In May 1879, he observed the signing of a peace treaty at Gandamak which ended the war for the time being.

When it was decided to send a mission to Kabul, Simpson applied to go but was turned down.

His primary interest in accompanying the mission was to visit the giant Buddhas at Bamyan, but had he gone to Kabul, he probably would have been killed liked the rest of the mission. It was this event which precipitated the second part of the war.

Simpson returned to London in the summer of 1879. Upon his arrival, he visited the offices of the Illustrated London News on the Strand and collected all his sketches and watercolours which he proceeded to mount in two large albums.

He also presented several papers to various learned societies on such aspects as Buddhist prayer wheels, sculptured topes and ancient remains in the Jalalabad Valley.

In the same year he was elected a full member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours.

In 1884, Simpson returned to Afghanistan with General Sir Peter Lumsden as part of the Afghan Boundary Commission. It was his last major trip abroad. Having spent the winter on the Afghan border, he set off for London in February 1885. As a result, he narrowly missed the Panjdeh incident in March, in which several hundred Afghans were killed by the advancing Russian army. Simpson reached London, therefore, at a time of great interest in the Boundary Commission and feverish speculation about the possibility of war with Russia. He received invitations to visit Lord Granville, then the Foreign Secretary, as well as various members of the royal family.

Throughout the following decade, Simpson continued his travels on behalf of his newspaper covering such events as royal weddings and coronations.

In 1890, he observed the opening of the Forth Bridge and caught a chill which was to have detrimental effects on his health.

Works by (selected articles)

Simpson, William, 'A contribution to the History of Lithography', The Lithographer, 1854

Simpson, William, 'The architecture of India', RIBA Trans. (Royal Institute of British Architects), May 1862, pp. 165–178.

Simpson, William, 'Arkite Ceremonies in the Himalayas', Good Words, 1866, pp. 601–608.

Simpson, William, 'Praying Machines', Good Words, 1867, pp. 845–850.

Simpson, William, 'An artist's jottings in Abyssinia', Good Words, 1 October 1868, pp. 605–613.

Simpson, William, 'Church architecture of Abyssinia', RIBA Trans, 1869, pp. 234–246.

Simpson, William, 'The Royal Quarries', Palestine Exploration Fund, 1870, pp. 373–379.

Simpson, William, 'Jerusalem', Society for Biblical Archaeology, 1872, pp. 310–327.

Simpson, William, 'The architecture of China', RIBA Trans, 1873, pp. 33–50.

Simpson, William, 'China's future place in Philology', Macmillan's Magazine. Nov. 1873, pp. 45–48.

Simpson, William, 'Gangootree', Alpine Journal, May 1874, pp. 385–397.

Simpson, William, 'Symbolism of Oriental Ornament', Royal Society of the Arts Journal, Vol. 22, 1874, pp. 488–494.

Simpson, William, 'The Modoc Region', RGS Procs. Vol. XIX, 1874–75, pp. 292–302.

Simpson, William, 'The Tenno-Sama, or Mikoshi; Ark-Shrines of Japan', Transactions of the Society for Biblical Archaeology, 1877, pp. 550–554.

Simpson, William, On the identification of Nagarahara : with reference to the travels of Hiouen-Thsang, 1881, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Simpson, William, Pujahs in the Sutlej Valley, Himalayas.” The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 16, no. 1, 1884, pp. 13–30.

Simpson, William, 'Architecture in the Himalayas', RIBA Trans. (Royal Institute of British Architects), Jan. 1883, pp. 65–80.

Simpson, William, 'In the trenches before Sebastopol', English Illustrated Magazine, December 1895.

Simpson, William, 'Winter and Summer in the trenches of Sebastopol', English Illustrated Magazine, April 1896, pp. 33–42.

Simpson, William, 'The orientation or direction of temples', London : Published for the Quatuor coronati lodge no. 2076 by G.W. Speth, 1897.

William Simpson

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William Simpson

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William Simpson across IJR

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Early life

Crimean War

India

Illustrated London News

Abyssinia

Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune

Meeting the Sun

Afghan War

Membership

Family and death

Works by (books)

Works by (selected articles)

Exhibition catalogues

William Simpson across IJR