Early Life
Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 15 January 1876, one of five children. His father, Frederick Simson, had been in the merchant navy and was a dealer in gold sovereigns in India who eventually settled in Le Havre, France, at the age of thirty-one. There he met eighteen-year-old Dora Spicer, daughter of a visiting English clergyman, and on marrying changed his name to Spicer-Simson. In 1874 the Spicer-Simsons moved to Tasmania, where they had some family, and ran a sheep farm for five years. Though Geoffrey was born in Tasmania, he soon moved to France at his mother's wishes. He and his siblings were sent to schools in England. The eldest, Theodore Spicer-Simson, became a world famous medallion portrait artist, moving between France and the United States. His youngest brother, Noel, eventually joined the British Army.
Geoffrey entered the Royal Navy in 1889 at the age of fourteen. He was appointed a midshipman on 14 June 1892. His naval career got off to a good start as he was advanced seven months in seniority for results that allowed him to pass out of Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. However, he lost a month of this additional seniority for leaving his ship despite having his leave stopped in 1894. He was promoted to acting sub-lieutenant on 19 February 1896, and he was confirmed in the rank of sub-lieutenant on 20 January 1897, back-dated to the original acting promotion. He was promoted to lieutenant on 30 September 1898.
From that time he began to specialise in surveying, and served on the North Borneo Boundary Commission in 1901, helping in the construction of several maps and the definition of boundaries. His most important position was in command of a destroyer, which he permitted to collide with a liberty boat, resulting in his being posted to dockside watch-keeping jobs. He then went to China and made the first triangulated survey of the Yangtze River from 1905-1908. After China, he was posted to Africa, and from 1911-1914 was in command of a survey ship on the Gambia river. In 1912 he married Amy Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund and Phoebe Baynes-Reed of Victoria, British Columbia.
He returned to Britain from Africa just a few days before Britain officially joined World War I on 4 August 1914. He had a brief tour on a contraband control vessel, but two weeks after taking command one of his gunboats was torpedoed in broad daylight. He was then given an office job in the Admiralty in the department in charge of transferring Merchant sailors to the War Navy.
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