Alice Isabel Simpson

Born: circa December 1852, in Mahableshwar, India.

Died: 16 January 1935 in Kensington.

Alice Isabel Simpson was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn at its Isis-Urania temple in London on 12 July 1895. Francis Freeman, George Cecil Jones, William Forsell Kirby and John Herbert Slater were also initiated on that day. Alice Isabel chose the Latin motto ‘Perseverantia et cura quies’; as this was cumbersome it was usually shortened to Perseverantia. She was initiated into the Golden Dawn's 2nd, inner order on 27 May 1899.

Alice Isabel’s daughters Elaine Mary [Elaine Simpson] and Alice Beatrice (known as Beatrice) were also initiated into the Golden Dawn, Elaine in 1897 and Beatrice in 1899. Aleister Crowley met Alice Isabel and Elaine Mary after he was initiated in 1898, and they became acquainted. After the incident known as the battle of Blythe Road, Alice Isabel and Elaine were cast out of the Golden Dawn in April 1900 by its newly-formed governing committee. Many years later, in his Confessions, Aleister Crowley described Alice Isabel thus: “a sixth-rate singer, a first-rate snob, with dewlaps and a paunch; a match-maker, mischief-maker, maudlin and muddle-headed.”