Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
William F Simpson |
Description |
William Farey Simpson. Ran 90 races. Third in World Championship. Interred Waimate Cemetery. memorial stone erected by NZ Athletic Association. Died age 35 years. Wife - Annie Ashton died age 96 years 1977 at Shearman Street, Waimate William Farey Simpson was New Zealand's first great distance runner. He won: NZ 1 mile champion in 1900, 1902 & 1903. NZ 3 mile champion in 1900, 1902, 1903 and 1904. Australasian 1 mile and 3 mile champion in 1901 (He held the 3 mile record for 23 years). NZ cross-country champion 1902 William was a guard for the New Zealand Railways and was stationed at Waimate. He fitted athletic training around his work. Morning and evening he'd train at the Victoria Park Oval and the district roadsides. For a time when transferred as a guard on the Ashburton-Springburn line, he would clip the tickets, and as the goods train was loaded and travelling uphill and not so fast, he would hop off and run beside the train, jumping on to clip the next lot of tickets. William died in 1913 of pleurisy and pneumonia. He is buried in the old Waimate Cemetery. (Note his headstone says he was 35 years old when he died, he was actually 37 years old.) The Waimate Archives has a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings, telegrams and photographs that document William's athletic career. William's son Frank, a farmer in Morven, donated the scrapbook to the Waimate Historical Society in 1973. |
Catalogue Number |
P636 |
People |
Ashton, Annie Simpson, William Farey |
Search Terms |
Athlete Champion Individual portrait Railway Railways Runner Sport |
Subjects |
Athlete Individual portrait Railway Runner Sport |
Copyright |
No known copyright restrictions |
Relation |
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