Alexander Russell Simpson

Sir Alexander Russell Simpson FRCPE FRSE LLD (1835-1916) was a Scottish physician who was Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh.

He was inventor of the Axis-Traction Forceps also known as the Obstetrics Forceps which made great advances in easing childbirth and reducing the pain thereof.

He was born in Bathgate on 30 April 1835, the son of Alexander Simpson (1797-1877), and nephew of James Young Simpson. He was educated locally then studied Medicine primarily at Edinburgh University but with periods also at Montpelier, Berlin and Vienna, graduating MD in 1856.

From 1865 to 1870 he operated a doctor's surgery in Glasgow at 1 Blythswood Square. In 1870, on the death of his uncle, Prof James Young Simpson, he inherited his large townhouse at 52 Queen Street in Edinburgh and returned to that city, also taking over his role at Edinburgh University as Professor of Midwifery.

In 1871 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being John Hutton Balfour. He was President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1889 and President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1891 to 1893.

He was a member of the United Free Church of Scotland and helped to run the Carrubbers Close Mission. He was a strong supporter of the Temperance Movement.

He retired in 1905.

He died in a road accident on 6 April 1916. He was buried in Grange Cemetery in the south of the city on 10 April.

He married Margaret Stewart Barbour, sister of Prof Alexander Hugh Freeland Barbour. She was an amateur author and wrote Awakings or Butterfly Chrysalids in 1892.

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