Alfred Allen Simpson
Alfred Allen Simpson (15 April 1875 – 27 November 1939) was an industrialist in South Australia and a partner in the firm A. Simpson & Son, founded by his grandfather Alfred Simpson. He was the mayor of Adelaide from 1913 to 1915. History. Alfred Allen Simpson was a son of Alfred Muller Simpson (4 April 1843 – 28 September 1917) and his first wife Catherine Simpson, née Allen ( ? – 16 October 1887). Both Allen and his brother, Frederick Neighbour Simpson, learned the trade of tinsmith, much as their father and grandfather had done, except that they were not apprenticed; Allen learned  the craft in the Gawler Place workshop and Fred in the stove factory in Pirie Street. Both also served in the retail shop where they later took on management tasks — Allen in the internal running of the business and Fred in charge of marketing and purchasing of raw materials: tinned and galvanized sheet metal, rivets and so forth. When their father took a trip to England in 1900 Allen acted as General Manager. The firm by this stage had 330 employees. A challenge at this time was Federation, and the removal of interstate tariffs, opening up the South Australian market  to competition from Victoria. Allen Simpson had his father's social responsibility in regard to his workers and to society in general. He was elected to the Hindmarsh ward of the Adelaide City Council in 1901, at the same election as his friend (later Sir) John Lavington Bonython. At that time, they were the youngest two members of Council ever. In 1903, he was elected Alderman after the retirement of Joseph Vardon. He was prominent in the founding of the Metropolitan Dairies Board (later Metropolitan County Board) and its first chairman. He traveled without payment to Britain and Europe to  learn about the systems of old-age pensions and electric tramways. He was elected Mayor of Adelaide in 1913 and again in 1914, again second only to Bonython as the youngest to hold that office. With the recession brought on by the closing of mines in 1914 and the record drought, he brought forward outstanding works such as extensions to the Central Market and the Town Hall. In 1915 he initiated the South Australian Soldiers' Fund, and with Lady Galway helped found the Belgium Relief Fund. He made it clear to his employees that any volunteers for overseas service with  the 1st AIF could have their jobs back when they returned. Family. Alfred Allen Simpson (1875–1939) married Janet Doris Hübbe (1887–1950) in 1910. Janet was a daughter of educator Edith Agnes Cook. From 1919 on, he resided with his family in Undelcarra in Burnside. Their children were: