Hampson was born at 488 Audenshaw Road, Audenshaw, near to Manchester (now Tameside), and was educated at King George V School, a grammar school in Southport. His brother Eric was killed in a naval action during the Second World War. He married Dorothy Mabel Jackson in 1944 and in 1947 they had a son, Peter. In ailing health, Hampson died from a stroke and the lingering effects of throat cancer in July 1985, in Surrey, England.