James Brunton Simpson (22 January 1905 – 10 December 1968) was a Scottish-Australian trade unionist, coal miner and politician, elected as a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

for

Lake Macquarie The City of Lake Macquarie is a local government area (LGA) in the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed a city on 7 September 1984. It is adjacent to the city of Newcastle and is part of the Greater Newcastle area. The ...

for the NSW Branch of the Labor Party.

Early life

Simpson was born at

Shotts Shotts is a small town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located almost halfway between Glasgow () and Edinburgh (). The town has a population of about 8,840. A local story has Shotts being named after the legendary giant highwayman Bertra ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and educated at Dykehead Public School. He started work at the age of fourteen as a coal miner. He arrived in New South Wales with his parents in 1921 and worked in Stockton Borehole Colliery at Cockle Creek until was seriously injured in a

mining accident A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground mining (hard rock), underground coal mining, although accidents al ...

in 1924 and had to be hospitalised for seven months. He studied commercial subjects and was employed by the Northern Districts Miners' Federation as its assistant secretary in 1927. He was secretary of the federation from 1940 to 1950. He married Grace Ellen Gallimore in May 1941 and they had one daughter and two sons.

Political career

Simpson was elected as the Labor member for

in 1950 and was re-elected in the seat until his death. He was

Minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is a government minister without specific responsibility as head of a government department. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authorit ...

from March 1956 to November 1957 and then Secretary for Mines (renamed Minister for Mines from 1 April 1959) until May 1965 when the Renshaw government was defeated. He died in Sydney on . In 1963 the

City of Lake Macquarie The City of Lake Macquarie is a local government area (LGA) in the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed a city on 7 September 1984. It is adjacent to the city of Newcastle and is part of the Greater Newcastle area. ...

named the "J. B. Simpson Pool" in Speers Point in his honour.

Notes

1905 births 1968 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly People from Shotts Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians British emigrants to Australia Australian trade unionists Australian coal miners Politicians from North Lanarkshire {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub