The Tom Simpson Society came about when a member of Liphook was researching the role of Tom Simpson in the design and redesign of their course. Arthur Croome had designed the course originally and he later became a partner in the company Fowler, Abercromby, Simpson and Croome. Simpson lived close to the course and was he was one of the very first members of the Club, having
become a member on 8 March 1924, going on to serve Chairman of the Green Committee. The Club was looking for photos and placed an advertisement in the local paper and one response was from the daughter of Simpson’s secretary who still had one of Simpson’s scrapbooks, packed full of press cuttings and the like. From these and other records, it was learnt that, when he was chairman, he made modifications to the course. His business partner Philip Mackenzie Ross later followed in his footsteps as Chairman of the Green Committee.


Around that time, golf course architects, Donald Steel and Company, were advising Liphook. Donald Steel had inherited one volume of Simpson’s “Golf Architect’s Bible”, a leather bound volume not unlike a scrapbook, again with quotations and useful pieces of information. His colleagues Martin Ebert and Tom Mackenzie shared his admiration for Simpson, the latter being a Woking member, the course that inspired Simpson’s career change, and the former having studied the work of Simpson for his dissertation. This meeting with the Club, particularly with Jess Stiles, brought together two substantial amounts of information about Simpson and the idea of a Simpson society was formed

Gradually, other people started to express an interest as word got around. The first informal meeting was held late in 2003 and another in later 2004. 2005 saw the formal establishment of the website and the first site visit to New Zealand Golf Club.

The goals of the society are:

1. To further the name of Tom Simpson in the game of golf

2. To learn more about his work and life

3. To gather and record information in the Society archive

4. To have at least one member from every Simpson course as a member of the Society

5. To have meetings at a Simpson course at least annually