Katherine Ashton Simpson (known as Kate A. Pearce Simpson; after marriage, Kate A. Pearce-Ellis; (1858–1951) was a British author, poet, and painter.[1]
Work
Simpson published several books and poetry collections. A number of her poems were set to music by her sister Florence Eva Simpson (Elva Lorence; 1865–1923) as songs which were published and widely performed. They also collaborated on several operettas; the comic operaNanette or The Mermaid's Bubble (1896)[2] and A Peep into Flowerland or Terra Flora.[3] Simpson's poems were also set to music by the composers Frederick Crouch[4] and George Kennedy Christie, the later being Florence Eva Simpson's husband.[5]
Simpson was also a trained painter. Her picture of her sister Florence Eva Simpson was exhibited and at the Berwick Exhibition in Newcastle-on-Tyne.[6] The painting is now in the collection Touchstones Rochdale gallery, run by Rochdale Arts & Heritage Service.[7] Simpson exhibited several paintings in the painting at the Royal Scottish Academy.[8] These included her painting 'The Artist's Little Model'.[9]
After which marriage in 1906, Simpson wrote her poetry and journalism under the name of Kate A. Pearce-Ellis.[10] However, she continued to write as Kate a. Pearce Simpson for the short stories she continued to publish in newspapers across the country – including in the Bristol Times & Mirror,[11]The Weekly Northern Gazette,[12] and in the Stalybridge Reporter.[13]
Personal life
Simpson was born in Fairburn, near Ledsham, West Yorkshire, on 8 March 1858.[14] One of 14 children, her parents were the Reverend Michael Henry Simpson (1816–1888) and his wife Elizabeth, née Hendrick (1806–1905).[15]
She was baptised by her father on 5 April 1858.[16]
She was married in Darlington on 18 September 1906 to John Pearce Ellis (1838–1925), a farmer 20 years her senior, after which her writings were often created under the name of Kate A. Pearce-Ellis.[21] After her marriage she and her husband lived at Longford House, in Longford, Gloucestershire.[22] They attended St Mary the Virgin's Church, Hartpury, where Simpson became churchwarden, and later St. Matthew's Church Twigworth.[23] John Pearce-Ellis died in 1925 and she died at Longford House on 24 December 1951. She was buried with her husband in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin's Church Hartpury.[24]
Simpson became a leading figure in social welfare organisations and a sought-after speaker on a range of subjects.[25]
^Simpson, Kate A. (5 March 1908). "The Jewelled Hilt: Kate A. Simpson". Bristol Times and Mirror. Bristol Times and Mirror. Retrieved 25 September 2024.