Born in Kendal, Cumbria, Simpson was the son of the Rev Canon Bernard W. Simpson and Mary Simpson. His interest in law began when he was young, as he describes attending a murder trial in Leeds when he was a boy.A. W. Brian Simpson, Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 954. Simpson was educated at Lancing House in Lowestoft, Oakham School and The Queen's College, Oxford on a closed scholarship, where he took a First in Law, the best first of his year. He registered for a doctorate in 1954, but never completed it.
