Fundraising mission in tribute to dead grandad and son gets support of Dicksons of Inverness
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An Inverness motor dealer is helping a man reach Czechia to mark the story of his family’s devastating loss of two boys – 60 years apart.
William Simpson’s uncle Walter Simpson died in WWII when he was aged 19 and William’s son, Angus, succumbed to cancer aged just two.
One was the uncle he never knew. The other, the little boy cruelly taken from him by a rare disease he was born with.
Mr Simpson’s pilgrimage to Hranice where his uncle’s plane crashed, will raise funds for Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG).
And Dicksons of Inverness has donated a special tartan Nissan Note car in which to make the pilgrimage after managing director Fraser Bryce heard about the venture.
After Mr Simpson, from Linlithgow, West Lothian, and his friend Andrew Balfour return, the car will be auctioned, and all funds raised will go to CCLG.
The duo set off last week.
Mr Bryce said: “This is such a tragic, yet heart-warming, story and we were delighted to assist William and Andy on their pilgrimage and to donate the car for this wonderful charity.”
Mr Simpson said: “My oldest friend Andy Balfour will be my co-pilot and navigator. This is an essential role as, since being diagnosed with ME/CFS in 2019, I would be unable to complete such an undertaking without assistance.
“Walter Simpson joined the RAF aged just 17, in 1943, as an air gunner and after training he joined Bomber Command. Sadly, his plane was lost on a mission out of Scampton Airfield in March 1945 and crashed near Hranice in what was Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic or Czechia. All on board were killed.
“Walter was my uncle and my dad’s eldest brother. My dad Adam, who sadly passed away last year, and I visited the Commonwealth Cemetery together in Prague in 2002. Although I never knew Walter, he has always been a strong presence in my life and the lives of the wider family. He is a symbol of bravery and unimaginable sacrifice, repeated so many times around this country and all over the world.
“In 2005, I became a dad. We welcomed a beautiful son called Angus Adam Simpson into our family. But our lives were soon broken apart by his cancer diagnosis, with Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma.
“Angus was as brave and strong as any soldier whilst fighting for his life, never wavering, always amazing and smiling right up to his last moments here with us in 2007.”
Mr Simpson said it had been a long-held ambition of his to travel to some of the historic sites associated with WWII in Europe, culminating at the plane’s crash site in Hranice.
“I have arranged to collect a piece of the plane’s wreckage (verified by local sources) and return it to the Bomber Command Memorial Spire in Lincoln to be interred there in memory of Walter and so many young lives cut tragically short," he added.
“It seemed a fitting tribute to him and his comrades. I decided that whilst honouring the loss of this part of my family, I could fundraise for research into children’s cancers for CCLG and honour the enormous loss of the other warrior in our family, Angus.
“Two boys, two generations apart: one family. We carry this loss and cherish the memories.”
Click here to donate towards Mr Simpson's efforts, which have generated more than £3800 so far.
