Today I captured a golden age session for the wonderful Ian. When I knew he had such an involvement with aviation I thought I would show him my Armstrong Siddeley, as they were made by Aircraft manufacturers. I decided to turn one of the images into a painting style to make it a little more nostalgic.
Ian George Simpson.
Was born 28th of July 1938 in Fyvie in Scotland, a small village, near Aberdeen.
Ian’s mother was unmarried, so the options were, he was either adopted out or raised by family. His grandmother would not let him go, and so he was raised by her, while his mother was part of a war time conscripted labour force of unmarried women.
She worked in aircraft manufacturing, as did the man she later married who became Ian’s stepfather.
Ian did get to meet his birth father once, but at the time he had no idea that’s who he was. Ian said that even if his parents had wanted to stay together, they couldn’t as they were from opposing clams and wouldn’t let them be married.
Sadly for Ian his Grandmother passed away. So, he returned to living with his mother, stepfather his half-sister when he was 8.
When he went to Fyvie village school in Scotland we still used slate.
In 1946 he moved from Scotland down to England Birmingham. went to Paget school till he was 15.
He remembers seeing the army getting ready for the invasion into Europe in 1944. The shock of leaving Scotland for England and seeing all the damaged buildings. Food was on rationing. And all types of goods were rationed It was very hard For everybody.
in Scotland. They never went short of food in the village they were able to trade goods and services with other villagers.
Ian joined the Air Force cadets at age 14
He started working for a manufactory optician, then Ian did compulsory national service In the Army and was sent to Cyprus
May 1958 he was part of the active service parachute regiment, and they were waiting to invade Iraq.
However, it was called off, so stayed there in the active zone and returned Feb 59
After returning from the army, his next job was making parts for minis in a factory. Ian owns a mini currently.
Ian met his wife Margaret. She was the love of his life. They got married in 1962. Then they had two daughters and in 1965 migrated to Australia as £10 poms they then had a third daughter.
When they came to Australia, they moved to Hurstville. His wife’s sister helped find accommodation.
Once in Australia Ian worked as a funeral director, part of his responsibilities was moving bodies and responding to afterhours calls to collect the departed.
Ian then worked for British Leyland as a goods inward inspector .
Hid career changed once more and he worked for Qantas loading the baggage, packing items into containers. His job also entailed greeting guests and directing them to their section of the plane and carrying their luggage along in his wheelbarrow type cart. He met people like John Laws, Bob Hawke and John Howard.
He believes his hearing deteriorated after working there for 23 years. They used to stick their fingers in their ears to block the sounds of the aeroplanes right next to them.
After he retired, he volunteered at Hars (an aircraft museum at Albion park ) for many years .
Sadly, Ian’s wife passed away in 2017. He lives in Kanwal and says it can be lonely still without her.
He is currently in a walking group, and they walk 5km 3 times a week. He also still goes dancing on occasion, but says it’s more like shuffling these days.
After all his daughters marrying, he now has eight grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren
His badges he wears proudly on his jacket are RSL badge member. The Wings when you qualified as a para trooper
And a badge Issued in 60’s as a war time service medal
His tie a regimental tie.
His Red beret is to identify him as a paratrooper royal army medical corp. The badge must be worn above the left eye, he told me.
