Windback Wednesday - Susan Mary Crompton

Susan Mary Crompton née Clark (1846-1932) emigrated to Australia with her family in 1850 from England. In 1852, the Clark family purchased property east of the city of approximately 45 acres, which included what is now the suburb of Hazelwood Park. The family named their home Hazelwood after a boy’s school in Birmingham.

In 1866, Susan married vigneron Joseph Crompton and the couple lived at Tower House, Beaumont and later moved to a property in Stonyfell. Susan worked with her sister Caroline Emily Clark on the ‘boarding out system’ for destitute children and sat on the committee of the State Children’s Council. During World War One she was appointed a justice of the peace, one of the first South Australian women to be chosen for this position.

Photographs: Studio portrait of Susan Mary Crompton, 1930 and Susan at the Hazelwood property, circa 1870. Burnside Local History Collection.