The son of Thomas Charles Sympson, a medical practitioner at Lincoln, where his family had been settled from 1730. After being apprenticed to his father for five years, Sympson entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was a contemporary of W S Savory (qv). He acted as dresser to Sir William Lawrence (qv), was a hard worker, a prize-winner, and "one of my oldest and very best pupils", as Sir James Paget (qv) wrote at the time of Sympson's death. His father died the year he qualified, just after his son's election as House Surgeon to the Lincoln County Hospital, a post he held until 1852, when he succeeded to the practice of John Hainworth, and later joined Samuel Hadwen in partnership. The partnership was joined in 1883 by Dr J T Collier, and in 1889 by Sympson's only son, Edward Mansel Sympson (MRCS 1885; d January 1922). Sympson was elected in 1854 Surgeon to the Lincoln County Hospital, and held the post until his death. He acted also as Surgeon to the General Dispensary, to the Lincoln City Gaol, and to the Lunatic Hospital. In the midst of busy practice he obtained the FRCS in 1872, and he proved a skilful surgeon. He was an active Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, and a member of the British Medical Association and was a Member of the Council at the time of his death, Vice-President of the Ophthalmological Section at the Nottingham Meeting in 1892, and at one time President of the Midland Branch. He was interested in geology and palaeontology, and furthered the work of the Lincoln School of Science and Art. He was Treasurer of the Lincolnshire Medical Benevolent Society, which owed much to his activity. He had practised at 2 and 3 James Street, Lincoln, and after a day's suffering from angina pectoris died on February 10th, 1892. Publications: "Scleroderma affecting the Left Lower Extremity." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1884, I, 1089. "Case of Myositis Ossificans." - *Ibid*, 1886, ii, 1026, with a bibliography of previous cases. Sympson noted in this paper the syndrome connecting myositis ossificans with congenital deformity of the thumb and great toe. *A Short Account of the Old and New Lincoln County Hospitals*, 8vo, illustrated, Lincoln, 1878.