Aharon Solomons

Who is Aharon Solomons?

Aharon Solomons is a freediver and national record holder.

Born Ernest Henry Child Simpson, Solomons is the son and only child of Ernest Aldrich Simpson and his third wife, the former Mary Raffray. His father was a partner with the shipping brokerage firm Simpson, Spence & Young, and best known as the second husband of Wallis Simpson, who later married the former Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. Solomons was born and baptised as Ernest Henry Child Simpson at Guard's Chapel, Wellington Barracks, London, England. His mother died in 1941, and his father died in 1958, the same year Ernest H.C. Simpson changed his name to Aharon Solomons.

Solomons spent the early years of his childhood in the UK, India and with friends of his father in Pennsylvania, U.S.. He returned to the U.K. in 1946 and attended Westbourne House School in Sussex, England, then Harrow School, and finally Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland.

In 1957, he was inducted into his father's regiment, the Coldstream Guards, and was commissioned as an officer in the Intelligence Corps and served in the Middle East. In 1962, Solomons moved to Israel and joined the Israeli Defense Forces, where he saw action in 1967-68 and on the Golan Heights in 1973. He married Joy Corisande Jackson in 1960; they have two sons, Uri and Nadav.