Mary Simpson (Q37737919)
# Mary Simpson (Q37737919)

## Mary Simpson (Mathematician)

Mary Simpson, born in Gateshead-on-Tyne, England on 7th July 1901, was an English Mathematician who lived in Newport, Fife.

## Biography

Mary Simpson was born to parents Joseph and Ann Simpson on 7th July 1901, she was the third of 4 siblings, Eleanor, Norah and Joseph Simpson.

Mary Simpson started her higher education at Edinburgh University in 1919 (only 27 years after the first female student studied at Edinburgh University), where she graduated with a Bsc in mathematics in 1922 and then continued her studies at Edinburgh University where she graduated with a first-class MA (a Scottish undergraduate degree, equivalent to BA in other countries). This was unusual for the time, as the ordinary route would be for students to take the MA and then the more specialised BSc.

During her studies for her master’s degree, she was required to choose an ‘ordinary’ subject, and for this she chose English. After her graduation from the university, she joined the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (founded in 1883).

Soon after joining the EMS, she was appointed to a position in University College in Dundee (which was a part of the University of St Andrews at the time), she remained in this position from 1924 – 1935. For a female maths lecturer, this was quite an unusual length of tenure at the time, as many women had temporary lecturing positions during World War I, but lost these positions when the men returned from war. Between World War I and II, it was common for women to move between short-term posts, which makes Simpson's length of tenure quite unusual.

In July 1935, she married David Dempster in Swindon, Wiltshire, England (Found in England & Wales, Civil Registration marriage index 1916-2005). Although we don't whether she had children she was listed in the 1939 England and Wales Register with an occupation of "unpaid domestic duty", suggesting that may have become a housewife.

She passed away on 11th November 1985 in Plymouth, England at the age of 84.

## Education

* 1906-1908 attended Newport public school in Fife
* 1908-1912 attended Portobello H. G. School, a high school in Edinburgh
* 1912-1915 Broughton J. S. Centre
* October 1919- July 1922 Edinburgh University Bsc
* October 1922- July 1923 Edinburgh University M.A.
