Alfred Simpson was born on 29 August 1805 at 139 Leadenhall Street, London, a son of John Simpson and his wife Anne, née Salter, daughter of a Boston sea-captain. The second youngest of their twelve children, he was at 15 apprenticed to Amos Burkitt as a tinplate worker, and in his spare time learned all he could of science and engineering. At the end of his indentures he was admitted to the Worshipful Company of Tinplate Workers and in May 1829 became a Freeman of the City of London. There being little work for an ironworker at the time, he joined his brother Tom in the tailoring firm of Paine & Simpson as a traveller. Silk hats had just become fashionable, and Alfred was sent to Paris to learn as much as he could about their fabrication. He made some improvements, took out a patent, and soon their company was one of the six largest hat makers in London, employing some 200 men. The prosperity of Simpson's business was checked by a fire and it took seven years of hard work before he was sufficiently affluent to marry. This was the period of the great railway boom, and in the depression following its collapse the demand for silk hats evaporated. Alfred suffered rheumatism, which was exacerbated by England's cold winters, and he decided to emigrate to South Australia where, it was said, the sun always shone and an bright energetic man could make a fortune. Another attraction may have been South Australia's reputation for religious tolerance. He paid off all his creditors and left for Adelaide with his family aboard the John Woodhall, arriving in January 1849. Alfred had several unsuccessful business ventures and twice visited the goldfields while Sarah gave piano lessons. He must have been moderately successful, as he sent Sarah 20 oz of gold in March 1852. In 1853 he turned to tinsmithing, making pots and pans and supplying cans for the Glen Ewin jam factory. In 1862 he leased premises in on the south-west corner of Pirie Street and Gawler Place, Adelaide, which were later rebuilt. Simpson was an innovator and introduced labour-saving machinery and new products such as fire-proof safes, bedsteads, japanned ware, colonial ovens and gas stoves. He was one of the first members of the South Australian Chamber of Manufactures. Of a retiring disposition, he was esteemed for his commercial ability and consideration to employees. He died on 23 September 1891 and was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery.
Family
Alfred Simpson married Sarah Neighbour on 21 June 1838, lived in Kent Town, then Upper Kensington from c.1880. Their family included:
Alfred M Simpson married Catherine Allen on 18 October 1871. He married again, to Violet Laura Sheridan on 23 August 1888, lived at Young House, Young Street, Parkside from c. 1885. This was once the residence and schoolhouse of John Lorenzo Young.
His only sister Caroline Simpson married Thomas Neighbour, lived in Middlesex
