Geoffrey Spicer Simson

Commander Geoffrey Basil SpicerSimson DSO was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Home Fleets. He is most famous for his role as leader of a naval expedition to Lake Tanganyika in 1915, where he commanded a small flotilla which defeated a superior German force during the Battle for Lake Tanganyika.

Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson was born in Hobart, Tasmania, onJanuary 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 thirtyone. There he met eighteenyearold Dora Spicer, daughter of a visiting English clergyman, and on marrying changed his name to SpicerSimson. In 1874 the SpicerSimsons 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 mothers wishes. He and his siblings were sent to schools in England. The eldest, Theodore SpicerSimson, became a world famous medallion portrait artist, moving between France and the United States. His youngest brother, Noel, eventually joined the British Army.

Source: Wikipedia