Simpson, Robert (1923–97), politician and medical doctor, was born 3 July 1923 at Ballymena, Co. Antrim, eldest son of Samuel Simpson, farmer, and Agnes Simpson (née Allen). He was educated at Ballymena Academy and QUB, where he received his medical degree in 1946. Having spent a year working in Leicester Royal Infirmary, he returned to Ballymena and joined a local medical practice.
He was returned unopposed as the unionist member for Mid-Antrim in the October 1953 NI general election and remained unopposed until February 1969, when he successfully withstood a challenge from an NILP candidate, Robert Galbraith. In parliament he frequently spoke on issues relating to agriculture and health, and in 1965 he represented the Stormont parliament at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in New Zealand. In September 1969 he was appointed additional parliamentary secretary at the office of the prime minister and the following month he became Northern Ireland's first minister for community relations. The appointment was part of a reform package encouraged by the British home secretary, James Callaghan. On taking up office, Simpson resigned as a member of the Masonic order and the Orange order and stated that ‘people must ultimately see that somehow the two communities are going to have to live side by side if only because they have nowhere else to go’ (Belfast News Letter, 9 Apr. 1997). He resigned as minister in March 1971 following the resignation of the prime minister, James Chichester Clark (qv); and as the possibility of a political solution became increasingly remote, he withdrew from parliamentary politics in 1972. Although he maintained a medical practice throughout his years in parliament, he retired from the NHS in 1986 and devoted the remainder of his medical career to occupational medicine. He maintained his attachments to several companies after retirement, engaging mainly in medico-legal work.
Throughout his lifetime he was an accomplished and active writer, and had travel and medical articles, as well as humorous pieces, published by more than one hundred newspapers worldwide. He was a regular contributor to World Medicine, while his medical columns were syndicated weekly throughout Britain and abroad under the names ‘Dr John Barfoot’ and ‘Dr David Blue’. In his later years he indulged in writing poetry. A keen gardener and active member of the Irish Tree Society, he travelled widely in the pursuit of horticultural excellence, culminating in Channel 4 TV coverage of his garden. Along with his wife he created an exceptional four-acre arboretum of specimen trees. As vice-president of the Ballymena Festival of Music, Speech, and Dance, he also worked tirelessly to promote the arts. His other interests included travel, country walking, and reading, and he had a keen appreciation of classical music. A founder member of Ballymena Round Table, he was admitted to the NI privy council in 1969. He died suddenly from myocardial infarction on 7 April 1997.
He married (21 September 1954) Dorothy Strawbridge; they had two sons, Dermott (b. 1956) and Guy (b. 1959), and a daughter, Cherith (b. 1958).