NEARLY 60 years ago, a distinguished naval officer who had seen active service during the Second World War and the Korean War, came ashore and rescued one of Herefordshire’s fine country houses from ruin.

Since Lt Cdr Simpson’s death at the age of 95 earlier this month, the Union Jack has flown at half-mast over Burton Court near Eardisland, a mansion transformed from ‘white elephant’ into a successful family-run enterprise, a gracious location for weddings, conferences and corporate events.

He also leaves his own personal account of historic events in a series of extensive diaries of his time at sea, which have proved to be a unique record for naval historians. His funeral service was conducted last week in Eardisland church.

Cdr Simpson’s career was launched at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1941, a year known as Special Entry 55 when he trained with cadets from the Free French Navy and their Norwegian and Canadian counterparts.

As a midshipman, he joined the great First World War battleship, Valiant after her refit in Durban, the year after the Duke of Edinburgh joined her as a midshipman.

In 1942, he became a First-Lieutenant and joined the Whimbrel, a Bird Class submarine hunter, joining in the Battle of the Atlantic when hundreds of lives and much shipping were lost. Whimbrel was deployed on anti-U-boat patrols in the English Channel and took part in the Normandy Landings.

His ship then entered the theatre of war in the Far East, and he eventually was present at the signing of the Japanese Peace Treaty in 1945 in Tokyo Bay. Lt Cdr Simpson’s diaries reveal his feelings as a young lieutenant following the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

On a lighter note, his diaries recount that while American ships were ‘dry’, British vessels permitted alcohol, so they were very popular.

In 1951, he joined the aircraft carrier, HMS Unicorn which plied between Hong Kong and Japan during the Korean War. A year later, he was chosen to lead the parade on Coronation Day in Singapore.

After the war, Lt Cdr Simpson took command of several newly built ships on sea trials from the Clyde, including HMS Diligence and HMS Sanderling. In August 1952 he was made up to the rank of lieutenant commander.

After the Navy, he got a taste for country life when he joined his brother’s soft fruit enterprise in Gloucestershire, and was inspired to buy what his family describe as a “rather large white elephant” in 1960. Burton Court was to be his home for the rest of his life.

He is survived by his wife, Helen, an acclaimed food writer and historian, and two sons, Henry and Edward and their four grandchildren.