Susan Grace Benny

Susan Grace Benny was Australia's first woman politician in elected office. She became a member of South Australia's Brighton Council (now City of Holdfast Bay) late in 1919.

Grace, as she was known, was born in Adelaide in 1872 and grew up on Yorke Peninsula. She attended a boarding school in McLaren Vale after her mother died in 1881, returning to the family sheep station to teach her younger sisters.

She married Benjamin Benny, a solicitor in 1896 and moved to Seacliff where they had 3 daughters and two sons. Benjamin served as Mayor of Brighton from 1903-05.

Grace was active in community life during World War 1. She was involved with the Seacliff Cheer-up Society, a local spinning club, progress association and croquet club. In 1916 she became SA's third woman Justice of the Peace.

In 1918 she became President of the women's branch of the SA Liberal Union. She was reported to have played a key role in the passage of legislation securing equality for women in divorce law in 1918.

In 1919 Grace was appointed to represent the newly created South Ward on the Brighton Council on petition of ratepayers. She served through two elections.

In December 1919, The Adelaide Observer’s social writer Lady Kitty wrote: "She entered the council from a sense of public duty, believing that there is work to be done in municipal life which will not even be commenced unless a woman undertakes it."

In November 1922 Grace stood for the position of Mayor and was defeated.

In her position, Grace led the representation of women in elected office.

Grace’s husband Benjamin served as an Australian Senator from 1919 to 1926 when he resigned due to ill-health. In June of that year Benjamin was convicted of embezzlement, served 3 years hard labour and was declared insolvent.

Grace and her children were forced to rely on some inherited money, but she later took over her husband's offices and opened the "Elite Employment Agency " which she ran through the Depression.

Benjamin Benny died in 1935. Grace remarried in 1940 to a 48 year old tramways worker. She died in 1944 and is buried at Scots Cemetery, Morphett Vale.