Grace Benny

Susan Grace Benny, the first woman elected to Local Government in South Australia; she served on the Brighton Council on behalf of Seacliff ward from November 1919 to December 1921. State Library of South Australia B-60835

Susan Grace Benny, née Anderson, (1872 – 5 November 1944) of Seacliff, South Australia, generally referred to as Grace Benny or S. Grace Benny, was the first woman elected to local government in Australia when she was elected to the Brighton Council (now City of Holdfast Bay) in 1919.[1]

Early life

Grace was born in the Crown Inn Hotel, Currie Street, Adelaide on 8 October 1872 to Peter Anderson and Agnes Ellen Anderson, née Harriot.[2]

She grew up on the family's sheep station "Springfield", located near Stansbury, Yorke Peninsula. She married her cousin, solicitor Benjamin Benny (21 October 1869 – 10 February 1935), eldest son of the Reverend George Benny, on 16 July 1896 and moved to Adelaide where he worked.[3] The couple moved to Seacliff in Adelaide's south and raised three daughters and two sons.[4]

Grace was active in a range of community and political organisations and during the First World War was the Honorary Secretary of the Seacliff Cheer-up Society. She was also a member of the local progress association and spinning and croquet clubs.[5]

Political career

Following World War I, Grace was a member of the Liberal Union Sturt District committee, president of the Brighton Women's Branch of the Liberal Union and was elected president of the Women's Branch of the South Australian Liberal Union in 1918. During this time she argued strongly for equality of divorce for women, which became law in South Australia in 1918.[6]

Following the lead of her husband who was mayor of Brighton City Council 1903–1905, Grace became the first female member of a local government council in Australia. Believing that there was work to be done in the area that only a woman could do, she was elected to the newly created Seacliff ward on 22 December 1919. She held this seat through two elections and stood unsuccessfully for mayor in 1922,[7] a defeat welcomed by at least one (Catholic) commentator.[8]

As a council member Grace successfully argued for public access to the beach, the installation of electric lights and the allocation of reserves for a children's playground and public garden. She also actively supported the abolition of segregated sea-bathing so that families could swim together.[9]

In 1921 Grace Benny was made a Justice of the Peace, hearing cases relating to state children, police matters and women.[10]

Controversy

Her husband Benjamin Benny was elected to the Australian Senate in 1919, resigning in January 1926 after suffering a stroke. He was immediately sued for misappropriating various trust funds,[11] and in June 1926 was convicted of the fraudulent conversion of Treasury bonds to the value of £1,200 as well as various other trust funds.[12] He was sentenced to three years' gaol, struck off the roll of the Supreme Court, of which he was a practitioner[13] and declared insolvent. The Benny home "Stoneywood", a 4.25 acres (1.72 ha) property overlooking the Seacliff foreshore reserve, was put up for sale in 1925.[14]

Later life

Following her husband's imprisonment, Grace was forced to rely on money she had inherited to support her children. Although she had never worked for a living, she moved into her husband's law offices in King William Street, Adelaide and opened the "Elite Employment Agency", which enabled her to support her family through the Depression[15]

Benjamin Benny died in 1935. On 23 February 1940 in Melbourne, Grace married Cecil Ralph Bannister. 20 years her junior, Bannister was a tramway worker and clerk before moving to Adelaide to live with Grace.[16]

Grace died in North Adelaide on 5 November 1944 and was buried in the Scots cemetery at Morphett Vale.

Recognition

References

  1. ↑ "Susan Grace Benny". cal Government in SA > More about Local Government > Susan Grace Benny. Local Government Association of South Australia. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "Susan Grace Benny". Adelaidia. History SA. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "Susan Grace Benny". Adelaidia. History SA. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  4. ↑ "Benny, Susan (Grace) (1872 - 1944)". The Australian Women's Register. The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) in conjunction with The University of Melbourne. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "Susan Grace Benny". Adelaidia. History SA. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "Susan Grace Benny". Adelaidia. History SA. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  7. ↑ "Susan Grace Benny - Australia's First Woman Politician". Local Government Association of SA. LGA SA. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "The Municipal Elections.". Southern Cross. XXXIV, (1725). South Australia. 8 December 1922. p. 11. Retrieved 3 September 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ Elton, Jude. "Susan Grace Benny". Adelaidia. History SA. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  10. ↑ "Susan Grace Benny". Adelaidia. History SA. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  11. ↑ "Trust Money". The News. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 12 February 1926. p. 1 Edition: Home Edition. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  12. ↑ "Ex-Senator Benny Guilty". The Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 11 June 1926. p. 11. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Struck off Roll.". The News. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 2 March 1926. p. 1 Edition: Home Edition. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "City and Suburban Real Estate". The Mail. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 14 February 1925. p. 14. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  15. ↑ Edgar, Suzanne. "Benny, Susan Grace (1872–1944)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  16. ↑ "Susan Grace Benny". Adelaidia. History SA. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
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