George Simpson (administrator)

Sir George Simpson (1786/1787 or 1792 – 7 September 1860) was the Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson's Bay Company during the period of its greatest power. During this period (1820-1860) he was in practice, if not in law, the British viceroy for the whole of Rupert's Land.

His efficient administration of the west was a precondition for the confederation of western and eastern Canada. He was noted for his grasp of administrative detail and his physical stamina in travelling through the wilderness. During his administration the HBC often returned a 10 percent profit. Excepting voyageurs and their Siberian equivalents few men have spent as much time traveling in the wilderness. He was the first known person to have "circumnavigated" the world by land.

Born at Dingwall, Scotland, the illegitimate son of George Simpson, Writer to the Signet, he was raised by two aunts and his paternal grandmother Isobel Simpson (1731-1821), daughter of George Mackenzie, 2nd Laird of Gruinard (grandson of George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth) and Elizabeth, daughter of Duncan Forbes, Lord Culloden. Simpson's father was a first cousin of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's father-in-law.

In 1808 he was sent to London to work in the sugar brokerage business run by his uncle, Geddes Mackenzie Simpson (1775-1848). When his uncle's firm merged with that of Andrew Colvile in 1812, Simpson came into contact with the Hudson's Bay Company since Colvile was a director of the HBC and the brother-in-law of Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk. He must have shown great ability, for in 1820 Colvile appointed him Governor-in-Chief, locum tenens of Rupert's Land.

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