Katherine Ashton Simpson

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]

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 opera Nanette or The Mermaid's Bubble (1896)^[2] and A Peep into Flowerland or Terra Flora.^[3]

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.^[4] The painting is now in the collection Touchstones Rochdale gallery, run by Rochdale Arts & Heritage Service.^[5] Simpson exhibited several paintings in the painting at the Royal Scottish Academy.^[6] These included her painting 'The Artist's Little Model'.^[7]

After which marriage in 1906, Simpson wrote her poetry and journalism under the under under the name of Kate A. Pearce-Ellis.^[8] 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.^[9] The Weekly Northern Gazette,^[10] and in the Stalybridge Reporter.^[11]

Simpson was born in Fairburn, near Ledsham, West Yorkshire, on 8 March 1858.^[12] One of 14 children, her parents were the Reverend Michael Henry Simpson (1816–1888) and his wife Elizabeth, née Hendrick (1806–1905).^[13] She was baptised by her father on 5 April 1858.^[14]

On her mother's side, she was part of an old north country family, being a great great granddaughter of Lord Lever of Alkrington Hall.^[15] Her father went on to be Vicar of the Church of St Philip and St James, Tow Law, County Durham, between 1862 to 1888.^[16]

Simpson and her siblings grew up at the Vicarage in Tow Law.^[17] Her youngest sister Alice Pickering (1860–1939), became a tennis player who twice reached the final of the Wimbledon Championship.^[18]

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.^[19] After her marriage she and her husband lived at Longford House, in Longford, Gloucestershire.^[20] They attended St Mary the Virgin's Church, Hartpury, where Simpson became churchwarden, and later St. Matthew's Church Twigworth.^[21] John Pearce-Ellis died in 1925 and she died at Longford House on 24th December 1951. She was buried with her husband in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin's Church Hartpury.^[22]

Simpson became a leading figure in social welfare organisations and a sought after speaker on a range of subjects.^[23]