Alfred M. Simpson

Alfred M. Simpson (c. 1842 – 28 September 1917) married Catherine Allen ( – 16 October 1887) on 18 October 1871. She was a daughter of James Allen (c. 1815 – 11 August 1881) of Unley and Harriet Allen, née McKellar (c. 1814 – 12 July 1896), who arrived in South Australia with two sisters aboard the Lady Lilford in 1839, and married in 1844. Their children included:

Alfred Allen Simpson (15 April 1875 – 27 November 1939) married Janet Doris Hübbe (1887 – 17 December 1950) on 6 January 1910. She was a daughter of educator Edith Agnes Hübbe

Frederick Neighbour Simpson (21 May 1877 – 19 March 1954) married Myra Louise Wilcox ( –1966) on 5 April 1910

Sarah Simpson (12 February 1882 – 1957) married Owen Crompton (1875–1923) on 27 September 1904. Owen was a son of industrialist Joseph Crompton

Catherine Harriet Simpson (18 June 1884 – ) married Cyril Howard Welch RAMC on 31 May 1920

Katie Allen Simpson (7 October 1887 – 1965) married Leonard Charles Simpson ( – 3 July 1953), a lieutenant of the Royal Artillery, in 1915. lived at 21 Rochester street, Leabrook. They were not cousins, but may have had the same great-grandfather.

He married again, to Violet Laura Sheridan (c. 1847 – 28 June 1921) on 23 August 1888. She was a daughter of Frances Keith Sheridan and Dr. John Sheridan, M.D. of Edinburgh and sister of Alice F. Keith Sheridan.

A sister, Catherine Simpson ( – 1 May 1917), married John Crawford Woods on 4 January 1882.

Simpson, first and foremost a business man, was reluctant to enter Parliament, but in 1887 (South Australia's jubilee year) he consented to contest a vacancy for the Central Division of the Legislative Council on behalf of the Protectionist Party. He signed the nomination paper on the Wednesday prior to the election, and did not address a single meeting, yet was returned at the head of the poll, as a colleague of J. H. Angas, also a Protectionist. He occupied the seat until 1894, then refused to nominate for the following election. He was a level-headed, straight politician of pronounced views. He not only opposed the introduction of payment of members, but, when that measure was carried, he gave the whole of his parliamentary allowance (£1,200) to be used as prize money for the encouragement of rifle shooting.