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 Ho ...

for

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

for the NSW Branch of the Labor Party.

Early life

Simpson was born at Shotts,

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

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 coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. C ...

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 either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

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 named the "J. B. Simpson Pool" in

Speers Point Speers Point is a suburb of Greater Newcastle, and the location of the council seat of the City of Lake Macquarie local government area in New South Wales, Australia. It is west-southwest of the city of Newcastle on the northern shore of Lake M ...

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